Some Township of Langley firefighters were able to apply recently acquired high angle rescue skills when a vehicle went off the road in Glen Valley on the weekend, landing at the bottom of a steep embankment.
Deputy Fire Chief Russ Jenkins said crews arrived around 1 p.m on Sunday, Dec. 21 in the 6900-block of 272 St.
“When we arrived, the RCMP were on scene.,” Jenkins told the Langley Advance Times.
“It was a single vehicle that had gone down the embankment, and it was roughly 40 feet down. It looked like it had rolled a few times, but the vehicle settled in an upright position.
Firefighters climbed down the embankment to check on the male driver and to see if the vehicle was stable enough for extrication.
“We had one of our trucks block traffic. RCMP assisted us with that,” Jenkins said.
“It was quite wet and quite steep.”
After confirming the vehicle was stable, they got the driver out.
“We sent our crews down, rigged everything up, and then our crew packaged the patient in a basket stretcher and pulled them up the embankment.”
Jenkins said more and more Township firefighters are training in what’s called technical rescues, saving people from hazardous, difficult-to-reach environments using using specialized tools, skills, and training,
“We’ve been spending a lot of our time focusing on training on high-angle rescue, technical high-angle rope rescue, tower-carrying rescue [rescuing an injured or incapacitated worker from a height on a tower or similar structure], and then over-the-bank rescue,” Jenkins said.
Eventually, the plan is to have all Township firefighters take the technical rescue course.
“The fellows did a good job,” Jenkins said.
“They secured everything, they blocked the roads, they got the patient up without issue and handed them off to B.C. Ambulance.”
Brian Twaites, BC Emergency Heath Service paramedic public information officer, said one ambulance with primary care paramedics and an advanced care paramedic response unit attended the scene.
“Paramedics provided emergency medical care and transported one patient to hospital in stable condition” Twaites said.