| Station 53 was alerted this morning around 9 am to respond as part of the Chester County Rescue Task Force to support Station 25 (Longwood Fire Company) for an auto accident with a vehicle into a building. Fame is the lead company for the structural collapse rescue discipline on the Rescue Task Force. The majority of the specialized collapse rescue and technical search equipment respond out of our station. Crews responded quickly with Rescue 53, Squad 53 and Trench 53 (our lumber cache), Utility 53 and Collapse 53 (our equipment cache) and numerous Structural Collapse Technicians on board. Once at the staging area, crews integrated with collapse technicians from Lionville (47) and Valley Forge (68) to stabilize the structure prior to the vehicle being removed by a towing company.
Structural collapse rescue incidents are infrequent calls but carry an extremely high risk to victims and rescuers alike. Fame, along with the other Rescue Task Force companies, is equipped and trained to handle these type of calls. Fame has more than 20 FEMA USAR equivalent trained structural collapse technicians, more than 20 ProBoard certified NFPA 1006 structural collapse technicians and nearly a dozen FEMA USAR equivalent technical search specialists on the roster. We train constantly to maintain our skills. Feel free to stop by the station for a tour of our equipment.
Photos courtesy of Kevin Corcoran, Richie Clark and Dave Daniels. |
