Collaboration amid snowstorm yields positive outcome for patients in Butler County, officials say
Ambulance services and fire department relied on assistance, plows, tire chains and specialty vehicles to respond to emergency calls through the foot and a half snow that fell Sunday.
Before a Karns City Regional Ambulance Service crew headed out Sunday evening for a medical emergency at a home in a remote area of Parker Township, they followed their pre-planning by calling the Bruin Volunteer Fire Department.
“We needed to gain access to the residence and the Bruin Volunteer Fire Department helped us out,” said Mark Lauer, president of the Karns City Regional Ambulance Service. “The crew knew to call early for help.”
He said the ambulance service conducts pre-planning with fire departments to respond to large scale incidents. During severe snowstorms like Sunday’s, ambulance crews do not drive on to driveways that are not plowed to avoid getting the ambulance stuck, he said.
“There was 15 to 17 inches of snow up here,” Lauer said.
The fire department responded to the scene with a four-wheel drive truck and a side-by-side all-terrain vehicle with a plow.
“The ambulance parked on the road. The fire department, with a side-by-side and four-wheel drive got the ambulance crew to the patient and helped plow them out,” Lauer said.
The Chicora Volunteer Fire Department also responded with truck with a plow and a side-by-side, but they were not needed after Bruin arrived, he said.
He said the ambulance crew knew to call for assistance in advance, and the result was a positive outcome for the patient.
“We don’t go into unplowed driveways. Our folks know not to take the ambulance off the hard road. It does no good if that thing’s stuck,” Lauer said. “We have great resources around us with our volunteer fire departments and municipalities. That’s a great relationship to have.”
In Saxonburg, firefighters prepared for the snow by putting chains on the back tires of their trucks, and put them to use Sunday night to respond to a vehicle fire in a driveway on Cobham Lane.
“Their driveway had 14 inches of snow,” said Christopher Dean, chief of the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company. “We put chains on the back tires Friday night to get ready for the storm.”
Using a truck with a plow, firefighters cleared the driveway so the fire truck could reach the burning pickup truck, which was heavily damaged and probably a total loss, he said.
The road was passable for people who drive slowly and carefully, he said.
“For us, just slow and steady and using chains. You have to drive carefully,” Dean said.
Dean and Lauer said most people heeded travel warnings and didn’t drive. Dean said his department received only four calls between 1:30 a.m. Saturday and Monday morning.
Butler Fire Chief Chris Switala said firefighters used the department’s four-wheel drive pickup truck to respond to most of the calls over the weekend, which mostly were medical calls.
He said the department responded to a report of a roof collapse Sunday evening, but the situation wasn’t as bad as it sounded. A few ceiling tiles fell and alarmed the residents, he said.
An apartment building on Jefferson Street lost partial power due to an internal electrical issue that caused a boiler to shut down, Switala said. He said extra staff was on duty over the weekend.
