http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-products/Vehicles/Off-Road-Rescue/ LOST CREEK, KY - Members of Grapevine-Chavies Volunteer Fire Department’s new ‘ATV Rescue Team’ took delivery of an All Terrain Res-Q Trailer from Mike Brady of ///EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT at the new Knott County ATV Safety Training Center. Built by the Empire Welding & Fabricating Co. of Cortland, New York, the purchase of this life saving equipment was funded by the YAMAHA Motor Corporation, USA. The day prior, their local Yamaha dealer, “Andy’s Cycles” in Hazard, Kentucky, provided the new team with a Yamaha Rhino 450 Side-By-Side as a tow vehicle for the off-road rescue trailer.
On Thursday, April 10, 2008, Brady conducted a rescue trailer “Orientation Session” at the GCVFD fire station in Chavies, KY. One of the members present for this training was Captain Eric Pratt. Pratt, a volunteer firefighter for Grapevine - Chavies VFD, is also a lineman for the Elliott Power Company in Perry County, Kentucky. During the two hour orientation session, Brady emphasized the need for ALL the team’s ATV / UTV operators to experience what it’s like to be a victim being hauled out on an off-road rescue trailer. So, Pratt, all 6'-4" / 375 lbs, laid himself in the basket stretcher and was “taken for a ride” on this off-road patient transportation device. Little did he know, the importance of this ride.
Now, fast-forward two days later when a neighboring agency, Jake’s Branch VFD, receives a call for help from local power company workers. The dispatch: “A power pole has fallen and a lineman has been seriously injured on the mountainside above Lost Creek” was heard throughout the area. Hearing the call and knowing the terrain, Ben Stidham, Assistant Chief of Grapevine - Chavies VFD contacted Jake’s Branch VFD and offered the services of their new “Off-Road Rescue” equipment. The mutual-aid offer was accepted. The scene was 10 miles southeast of Chavies, near the community of Bulan. Upon arrival a technical rope rescue operation was being conducted by fire-rescue personnel from Jake’s Branch and Lost Creek VFD’s. With no roads leading up the mountain, rescuers gained access to the scene via a rugged narrow path cut by power company workers. A short time later, the patient was delivered to the ATV Rescue Team from Grapevine-Chavies VFD.
Still a mile from the nearest landing zone, the off-road rescue team picked up a Paramedic from the Perry County Ambulance Service. With the All Terrain Res-Qs rear attendant’s seat positioned at the patient’s head, advanced life support level care was delivered to the patient as the ATV team utilized the donated Yamaha Rhino and Res-Q Trailer, to carefully proceed down the mountainside. Upon reaching a waiting Perry County Ambulance, the Paramedic decided to continue the remaining 1/4 mile transport to the helicopter LZ by the rescue trailer, as transferring the patient and litter to the ambulance would have consumed more time. A minute and a half later, the patient was delivered by the ATV rescue team to a waiting “Wings Air Rescue” medical evacuation helicopter and flown to a trauma center in Tennessee for treatment of his injuries.
What made this first run even more unique for the Grapevine - Chavies ATV Rescue Team was it involved one of their own! Yes, Captain Eric Pratt, Grapevine - Chavies VFD, was the lineman injured when a power pole fell on him while working to restore electricity to Perry County residents on a steep mountainside above Lost Creek, Kentucky. Even when untrained rescuers expressed concerns over the stability of the All Terrain Res-Q, Pratt and the other ATV Rescue Team members relied on their training to safely deliver the injured power worker, and fellow firefighter, to the helicopter LZ.