Tuesday Morning Callout

Wolfskin VFD was paged out early in the morning this morning for an overturned vehicle accident on US 78 at the infamously dangerous Cherokee Corners going into town.

That particular stretch of 78 has been the scene of many bad accidents. Going into town you approach the danger zone after climbing a steep hill, cresting, and then starting down a steep hill on the other side, there is a rather sharp near-90 degree curve to the right. While the speed limit on this stretch is 45 mph, traffic invariably travels at 60 mph. It is a very busy two lane road and it is heavily travelled by all kinds of heavy haulers.

This one was a large truck carrying 5200 chickens, as I discovered after parking on the side and starting down the side of 78. Dead and stunned chickens everywhere.

Fortunately there was no fire involved, for the driver was pinned inside the twisted cab and had to be extricated. I didn't get involved with that other than to observe and learn a few things from a distance. Vehicle accidents always require fire assistance, just in case, which is why we were there. In our county, Oglethorpe Rescue generally does the extrications, and in this case was assisted by Crawford and Arnoldsville VFD. All the VFDs are assisting on backup in the event of fire, and that's what went on for the first hour. And all the while Oglethorpe EMS was working with the pinned driver.

In the second hour it was decided to order a helicopter brought in to convey the driver to Atlanta. A helicopter has to be able to land and there was a fine field without even fire anthills just a coupla hundred feet downhill.

There always has to be fire control presence at a helicopter landing and takeoff. So WVFD along with Arnoldsville VFD, scanned that nearby field for landing, got the handsome WVFD pumper into position, connected up the hoses, charged them, and waited. The helicopter landed at about the same time the driver of the truck was freed, and that was fun to watch from up close, waiting with charged hose, just in case.

And then the stretcher was loaded into the helicopter, it took off, and that was it. Someone else gets to clean up the chickens.

Of course, with a two lane highway, at rush hour, traffic was backed up one way and then the other for at least a mile. Glenn reports that a lot of drivers had their cell phones out videorecording as they drove past. So at least they had something to do, which probably explained their generally good behavior.

We ended up with eight from Wolfskin showing up and assisting and that was a very good turnout for us. Crawford and Arnoldsville VFD helped Oglethorpe Rescue with the extrication and fire protection at the immediate scene while Oglethorpe EMS did the crucial medical assist, and Arnoldsville VFD and Wolfskin VFD worked together on backup there and at the helipad site.