Technical Rescue - 85 Beacon View Dr. Fairfield, CT - 11/7/2020
Today around 3:10 in the afternoon, the Fairfield ECC received a call for a tree worker stuck 35-40 feet up in a tree and unable to get down. The initial dispatch was for Engine 2 and Ladder 2. En route, Car 3 added Engine 3 and Rescue 1 to the assignment. Also while en route, units were updated that a second person attempting to rescue the first had gotten stuck as well. On arrival, units found a dead branch from a tree being worked on had snapped off and pinned the legs of a worker who was in the "V" of another tree, while still partially being attached to the tree it came from. The other person had already come down from the tree by themselves. Fairfield companies made slow progress initially due to a language barrier with the subject in the tree, as well as them possibly being in shock. Car 3 soon asked for mutual aid from Bridgeport, asking for a tower ladder with a 45-foot extension ladder. Bridgeport sent a task force consisting of Ladder 5, Rescue 5, Safety 1 and Battalion 1. On arrival, Bridgeport companies assessed the current situation and set up for a rope rescue. The 40ft ladder from Fairfield Rescue 1 was set up at the tree where Rescue 1 then made contact with the patient. Fairfield Ladder 2 (currently in Engine 1, a Sutphen SL-75 Quint) was beached on the neighbouring lawn and the aerial was flown to the tree. Fairfield & Bridgeport firefighters were able to soon get the subject removed from the tree and down to the ground where they were transported by AMR to the hospital. Fairfield Police, the Fairfield Tree Warden, and OSHA are investigating this incident.
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