8/13/02 Roof Rescue On Vine Street

Just after 1730 crews from Stations 2 and 3 and NOVA were dispatched to a reported unconscious person on a roof on Vine Street. Based on the nature of the incident, Engine 32 started first from Station 3 in case extra roof access was necessary, and Squad 2 was already enroute. Engine 32 (Capt. Race) and Squad 2 (FF Rovelli) arrived simultaneously to confirm a patient suffering heat exhaustion in and out of consciousness on the rear roof of the house. Seeing no way to safely get the patient off the roof in a controlled and timely manner, Rescue 3 (Lt. Lyons) and Truck 2 (Lt. Barnes) were requested into the scene for aerial and stokes basket support, as well as technical rope rescue support.

A simple stokes basket removal using the Truck 2 basket was out of the question due to space constraints between the house, trees, and power lines. Once the aerial basket was in place at the front edge of the roof, a simple fixed brake lowering system with anchor straps, a figure 8, and rescue rope was set up, using the aerial basket as an anchor point, as no other anchor point was available above the patient. Once this was all in place and the patient was secured in the stokes, the patient was lowered down a low angle ground ladder at the rear of the roof and delivered to NOVA for transport.

Once the plan fell into place, the patient was successfully removed from the roof within minutes. An excellent job done by all.