Colorado Firefighters Respond to Paraglider’s Rough Landing

As warm weather arrived in Colorado, firefighters shifted gears from cold-weather rescues to those more commonly affiliated with summertime. Case in point: the rescue of a paraglider on Lookout Mountain.

On June 3, at a little past 1215 HRS, a City of Golden dispatcher received a 9-1-1 call for a man injured in a paraglider accident just under the giant letter “M” on Lookout Mountain, located just south of Golden. The area is commonly used for paragliding.

At 1219 HRS, the Golden Fire Department dispatched Engine 1, Rescue 1 and Battalion 1. Also dispatched was AMR Ambulance 131. The operation would eventually also include the Foothills Fire Protection District, the Highlands Rescue Team, Genesee Fire and Rescue, the Colorado School of Mines and Jefferson County Open Space park rangers. Battalion 1 arrived on scene at 1229 HRS, soon followed by the other responding units.

The 53-year-old paraglider was found approximately 100 feet above and out of sight of the road. He was conscious and alert and appeared to have lower extremity injuries, including a possible hip injury. The man had been paragliding when he came in for a hard landing.

To get him to the road, rescuers would have to lower him down a slope that ranged from about 30 to 50 degrees, with a steeper slope at the end. To traverse the area with a single lowering, the rescuers decided to rig a highline system.

Using full C-spine precautions, the rescuers used spider straps to lash the patient the patient onto a spine board. They then packed him in a metal basket litter.

For the highline lowering, the riggers had set up two anchors at the top–one set up by placing climbing-type hardware (“rock pro”) in some cracks and the other by placing webbing around a rock. The brake tender was secured by attachment to this second anchor. The bottom end of the highline was anchored to the rear of the heavy-rescue unit. Rescuers used a brake tube for the main lowering and a guideline as additional safety. Once everything was ready, they then attached the litter to the main line using pulleys.

The patient remained conscious throughout the rescue. Once at the road, the rescuers lifted the patient from the litter onto the backboard and placed him on the ambulance gurney.

At 1415 HRS, AMR transported the patient to St. Anthony’s Central Hospital in Denver. All units cleared by 1422 HRS.

Sources: Lt. Jeanette Kehoe of the Golden Fire Department Training Division provided information for this report. Some additional details were taken from an account of the incident in The Denver Post.

LESSONS LEARNED/LESSONS REINFORCED:
Lt. Kehoe makes the following observations:

“Golden Fire is a combination department with 89 volunteers and nine paid staff. When a calls drops, we have members with varying skill levels respond.

“We have technical rescue team members who must pass a variety of skills tests in order to be on the team. These include rope rescue, swiftwater rescue, ice rescue and extrication. On this particular call, we had several members who were on the technical rescue team and several members who were not, but who did have some rope rescue training.

“At the onset of the call, there was some miscommunication between the rescue captain and some of the other members as to what type of system we were going to set up. This resulted in having to re-rig the system. The patient was stable, but in a more critical situation, this would have been a concern.

“The call also occurred on a fire district border, so we also had two other volunteer departments on scene, as well as a volunteer ambulance company who had members with rope rescue training. The different agencies and varying levels of skill necessitated very clear communication about the way the system was to be set up. As I said initially, communication was not clear and this resulted in the system being set up differently from how the rescue captain intended. This also resulted in him having to shuttle between the top and bottom of the incident to ensure that the rigging was correct. But the lowering occurred without incident and the patient was transported.

“This call was a good reminder to make sure to slow down, determine your game plan and ensure that all rescuers are clear on the plan before the set up is initiated. Also, make sure that the more experienced rescuers are working with the less experienced in order to guide the set up.”