Longest Distance to a call

[shaneb]

Yesterday (March 6th) at 1300hrs my pager went off for a multiple car MVA with multiple injuries, from mild to a severe head injury. Initially the crash scene was 45kms up a low maintance forest access road. Our two units (Balmertown) rolled and another from the Red Lake hall with the auto ex team. At the 40 km marker the O.P.P Comm Center updated us, the scene was in fact 100kms up the road. We knew that the road was only110 kms long, after that it was a winter only access road over the frozen lakes to several isolated Reservations. We lost radio contact with the Comm center untill we hit 97km mark. Guess what at 100kms we were told to stand down! The O.P.P and Paramedics had reached the scene(another 45kms out the winter road on a lake) the injured were being stablized no need for Fire Rescue. Our pumper had to travel another 8kms to find a spot to turn around, the road was only plowed to 13ft wide. We let the cops and Ambulance go by and proceeded back home. After 35kms we met the air ambulance in the middle of the road after another 30min delay we were rolling again. I got back home at 1700hrs, I was exhausted and hadn't even gotten into my turnout gear.


I was wondering does anyone else have long distance responce tails. Other than the distance travelled to the end of my story LOL.

[DFCSmash]

Yep, gotta love those remote calls. You've got us beat by about 35km one way. When we got there 52km highway, 15km gravel 2km dirt, we had a FULLY involved farm yard. Made the stop before it got to the machine shed or the house. Lost a barn 3 outbuilding and a lot of loose housing. Next 2 closer depts weren't answering their pages. Harvest time and all. Probably been on 10 calls over 60km one way. 8 were mutual aid. One was ugly MVA, the other was a field/brush fire. Right in the furthest corners of our protection agreement district. But we're 12-15km closer than the next closest dept.

100km one way to a MVA gives a person WAY too much time to think about what's gonna be there.

[shaneb]

You got that righ DFCSmash it gives you a lot of time to think about wants at the other end. And to the length of the drive about 1/2 of it was on snow covered and ice packed road. One PetroCan truck did not stop, slow down or yield right of way to our fire trucks (3units responding.) Our pumper was almost pushed into the ditch. I saw a 29ft pumper fish tailing sideways on a 13 ft wide road ir was an experience. Our bounderies have changed after that call to a 55km limit.

[Red_Devil]

55km????Jeez there was the whole "golden hour" philosophy

[shaneb]

I know, but the only other community that has any fire department cannot respond during the summer as they are on a Reservation that is water access only. Truth be told I don't think they have extraction equip. or training. So that leaves our department. Our fire chief informed us that if they want rescue services they will have to do it themselves or provide us with a unit specifically for that purpose on that route.

[ehetu]

100 kms? And I thought 20K was way stretching it for a response from my sector.... my main concern would be what happens if there's a serious MVA closer to "downtown". If my main rescue unit is 2 hours away then we're caught with our collective pants down (don't try to image that). Do you have another extrication team? Does having one of your pumpers that far away impede with your ability to service the more populate areas simultaneously?

Edmond
Chelsea FD

[telesquirt]

Our furthest response would be a logging road approx. 100+ kms long, the start of which is about 60 kms from our hall.
All our fulltime crew is hover exit certified and we have a quick response extrication kit that's light enough to load in a chopper. We have an excellent relationship with the M.N.R as well as an agreement with them to supply us with air transport to remote industrial sites in case of an accident out there.
We haven't had to respond by chopper yet-----but talk about a rush !!!!!

[dentedhead]

Wow and I was pissed when I worked in T.O. and we would get occaisonal long hauls, No laughing. The longest emerg.response I remember was about 16kms.from the S/W part of downtown to Etobicoke.Kinda puts it in perspective.

Dentedhead

[WFD999]

Hear YA. The Joys of working in a rural area. We can travel 65 Km in our responce area up 250 Km Mutual aid. The long ones suck especialy if your stuck in a jump seat with a BA diggin in your back the whole way.

[firefighter9calt]

Here is a list of our 3 longest calls all of which were Mutual Aid calls for our 2500gpm Portable Pump.

#1 210Km 2 1/2 hours with fuel stop
#2 120Km 1 hour
#3 115 Km 1 hour

[shaneb]

100 kms? And I thought 20K was way stretching it for a response from my sector.... my main concern would be what happens if there's a serious MVA closer to "downtown". If my main rescue unit is 2 hours away then we're caught with our collective pants down (don't try to image that). Do you have another extrication team? Does having one of your pumpers that far away impede with your ability to service the more populate areas simultaneously?

Edmond
Chelsea FD

In the Municipality of Red Lake we have 5 townsites each one has a fire hall. Red Lake being the largest, ours is second, the other halls are smaller with considerably smaller populations. Each townsite is approx. 6km apart, so if one hall goes on a call the hall closest goes on stand by. We have only one extraction team and it's in Red Lake. They are supposed to recieved new equip and we are to get the "old" gear. Untill that happens alls we got is crow bar and hammer.

[mutts252]

They are supposed to recieved new equip and we are to get the "old" gear. Untill that happens alls we got is crow bar and hammer.

LOL oh man... crow bar and hammer... i'm sure that'd be reassuring to the people trapped inside... "we'll have you out in a jiffy, ma'am!" ... or not :-p

[DFCSmash]

Well, mutts252, you might be amazed at how mucn metal you can move in a hurry with just a hammer and chisel. Not talking about dash rolls and the like, but just access. Two people who know what they're doing with the right set of hand tools will flap the roof faster than 1 with a set of jaws or shears.

[mutts252]

hehe i know DFC, no worries... resourcefulness seems to be an inherent trait to many ff's, i think a lot could do it with just the hammer. :D

i was just trying to make light of the situation :)

[Toxic]

Several years ago we had a call of a large fire about 3 miles from town. We jumped in the trucks and could see a huge fire - looked about a mile away. We started driving and went the 3 miles and the fire still looked like it was a mile away. Well we did this for about 20 minutes until we got out of our fire district. Once there we started made some inquiries. Turns out the fire was in Winkler some 45 minutes from our hall. The were so many bales on fire that it was in fact a huge fire very far away. Ii was an awesome sight. They ended up using water bombers to put it out.

[DFCSmash]

Yeah, that was quite a blaze Toxic. I never saw it, but I saw video and heard more than one presentation on it. If any of the others haven't heard, it was a large enough and hot enough blaze to create its own weather. An employee of the company that owned the bales was driving around the perimiter of the blaze, when one of the updrafts created by the fire sucked him out the open window of his truck and he died of his burns and injuries.

Oooops, didn't mean to hijack.

[Toxic]

No worries DFC.

It was fatal and arson was proven. One of the departments there - I think it was Altona, misplaced a few guys for an hour on that call too. They had taken off on foot down a mile road and no one could account for their wherabouts. The accountability system went into full force in the pembina triangle after that one...

[gaga]

It is not uncommon for us to go over 50km out of town on a call. We have two major highways and we are the only game in town for over 100km in each direction. This winter we went 78km north for a single vehicle rolloever. Poor bugger was in his car for over 45 minutes in -30c weather. In the end he got away with only minor injuries.