CENTERBURG — Farming accidents are common in our agricultural community, and local fire deparments are frequently called upon to help. At the Oldtime Farming Festival on Saturday afternoon, crowds watched as the Central Ohio Joint Fire District, with the aid of two neighboring departments and MedFlight, gave a demonstration of what kind of rescue and emergency services work are sometimes required to help victims of these accidents.
Oldtime Farming Festival President Bob Newton of Centerburg acted realisticly as an unconscious victim underneath an overturned tractor. COJFD Chief Joe Porter narrated for the crowd, and served as a dispatcher, while Lt. Jason Whipple, the incident commander, called for fire crews, rescue equipment and engines, and a squad, before dispatching MedFllight.
Porter explained that such a rescue operation would require mutual aid from other departments in the form of manpower and equipment, and the Porter-Kingston Fire Department, and Berkshire, Sunbury, Trenton, Galena Fire Department, participated in the elaborate demonstration.
Using jacks, chains, 4-by-4s, and several firefighters, the tractor was slowly lifted off Newton, while shoring up the damaged tractor to ensure it did not collapse back onto the victim. Meanwhile, medics stabilized the patient’s head and neck, checked him for injuries, and simulated the administration of intravenous fluids.
The crowd was mostly silent while they watched closely as the firefighters rushed around as if at a real emergency. Porter answered questions, including one asking how the crews would be able to rescue a farmer in a similar accident, but in a muddy, or rainy field. “We do what we have to do,” Porter said. He explained this type of rescue is not usually a quick one, no matter what the field conditions.
COJFD Lt. David Miller said he thought the exercise gave the audience a good idea of what was involved in an actual rescue.
“Hopefully, it’s a good demonstration of what’s going to happen on an actual farm rescue,” he said. “It’s not going to be a fast rescue.”
Once the tractor could be safely lifted, the patient was carefully strapped to a backboard. MedFlight 1 and its crew, containing a flight nurse and flight paramedic, landed several yards away.
The flight nurse and paramedic assisted firefighters and paramedics with moving the patient on a gurney to the helicopter, and loading him carefully through a door in the back.
Onlookers were impressed with the realism of the demonstration, and the variety of equipment used. “It was awesome,” Mickey Bryan of Sunbury said. Bryan watched the demonstration with her husband, Robert. “I just wish I’d brought my granddaughter!”
The children in the audience agreed. “It was cool,” said 6-year-old Nicholas Kaiser of Centerburg.
“They were really quick,” said Croton resident Beth Austin of the emergency workers.
“I’ve never seen the equipment before,” said Sarah Grove of Johnstown. “It was really good,” she said of the demonstration.
Porter said several people spoke to him after the exercise to tell him how much they enjoyed it and how much they learned. “Many asked questions, and had not seen a demonstration like this,” the chief said.
