On Monday, December 8 2014, the truck 220 crew answered a first-response call at the corner of Saint-Gabriel and Notre-Dame Est, in Old Montréal, where a 47-year-old man had been struck on the head by a rock.
When they arrived on the scene, the supervisor of the sewer worksite told the firefighters that a rock about the size of a softball had fallen from the top of the trench and struck a worker on the head. The man was unconscious and lying at the bottom of the 5-metre-deep trench.
Firefighters Sylvain Giguère (20-2) and Sébastien Harvey (20-2) wasted no time, making their way down into the trench immediately. The environment was safe, since the contractor had installed a steel box to protect the workers.
Lieutenant Prince Champagne (20-2) asked for reinforcements from truck 720 and our specialized teams from stations 13 and 27 to help evacuate the worker. The two first-response firefighters, meanwhile, were busy stabilizing the patient and getting him ready to be evacuated.
Two options were considered for removing the worker from the trench: either use the basket on truck 720 or lift him out with ropes. The steel box and the tight confines in the trench made it impossible to get the basket close enough, leaving ropes as the only option. The crews positioned truck 720 above the victim and lifted him out on a stretcher.
Thanks to the help of the firefighters on the scene, the rescue operation went quickly, efficiently and safely. Congratulations to the firefighters from station 20, group 2, and to the high-angle rescue team from stations 13 and 27.
Co-operation: Lieutenant Prince Champagne (20-2) and Chief of Operations Serge Bienvenu (135-2)
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