A Jan. 28 rescue in the Albuquerque, N.M., area showed how rescuers need to improvise when plan A doesn’t work–and then plan B is also a no-go.
The incident began with a 9-1-1 call reporting a man calling for help in the San Antonio Oxbow Open Space.
At 1030 HRS, the department dispatched Engine 7, Engine 17, Rescue 18, Squad 2, Battalion 4 and a quality assurance officer. Due to the possibility that the man was trapped in the river, which would require a water rescue, the department dispatched the remainder of the Technical Rescue Task Force from Station 3: Rescue 3 and Engine 3. The first unit arrived on scene at 1041 HRS.
Rescuers first met with the 9-1-1 caller to determine the victim’s location. The caller was a high school biology teacher who had been leading a group of students on a field trip. The teacher and students said they had not actually seen the person, but that they had heard a voice from the reeds in a marshy area.
To get to the site, firefighters had to leave their vehicles on a mesa top, walk down the embankment and then descend a 30-foot-long slope to the water’s edge. There was initially 100 yards of still water, then a marshy area that extends out about 300 yards before reaching the open water of the Rio Grande River.
Command assigned firefighters in teams of two to conduct an area search in the marsh to try to locate the patient, determine his condition, and report what equipment would be needed for the rescue. The air temperature was about 35 degrees F and the water was cold and covered with a thin layer of ice, so the searchers donned dry suits and began their search.
Following the man’s voice, which was faint and intermittent, the searchers were able to locate the patient. He was lying down, disoriented and asking for water, and indicated that he couldn’t feel his legs.
Command then sent out another crew with blankets and hot packs for initial re-warming, along with a titanium basket litter equipped with flotation device, and requested an airboat from the Albuquerque Open Space Division. The paramedic (who had been in a nearby search team) evaluated the patient, who appeared to be in his late-20s to early-30s, and determined that the man could not move his legs. The paramedic’s main task was to keep him totally out of the water, reporting that “He can’t afford to get wet anymore.”
The airboat from the Open Space Division responded; however, as it approached the area, it ran across some physical barriers in the marsh and could not get closer to the patient than 200 yards.
Command now instituted a back-up plan: Transport the patient on the department’s Zodiac inflatable boat. However, in the course of inflating the boat, the crew found a failure with one of the Zodiac’s air chambers.
With plans A and B now out, one of the rescuers had a suggestion: Use boogie boards from the water rescue cache for additional flotation. Boogie boards are small, rectangular pieces of hydrodynamic foam, and several of them placed under the litter would provide adequate floatation.
The rescuers placed boogie boards under the litter and secured the package by pulling the litter straps under the litter. The rescuers did not want to strap the patient in the litter, because if he litter accidently inverted, the patient could drown. Also, the paramedic had cleared the patient’s spine, so there was no need for spinal immobilization.
To provide additional warmth, rescuers placed the patient in a dry suit and provided him a personal floatation device. They then floated him approximately 50 to 60 yards to shore.
Once on shore, rescuers removed the boogie boards from under the litter. They then secured the patient in the litter using the litter straps. They still needed to perform a low-angle operation to move him up the slope, so they rigged a 3:1 MA (“z-rig”) hauling system using pulleys and rope grabs, and anchored the system to a water rescue unit, a Ford Excursion. At the top of the slope, rescuers placed the patient in the Excursion and drove him a short distance to the waiting ambulance.
At 1236 HRS the ambulance transported him to the University of New Mexico hospital, arriving there at 1257 HRS.
Law enforcement later determined that the man was a homeless person who lived near the river. It was unknown how he came to be in the river. He claimed he had been out there for five days, though there was no way to confirm this claim. The police also determined that he was wanted on a felony warrant alleging aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
After hospital evaluation and treatment, the patient was transported to jail.
Sources: Albuquerque Fire Department Captain Richard Collado provided information for this report. Some additional details were taken from a report on KRQE-TV.
Lessons Learned/Lessons Reinforced
Captain Collado observes the following:
- “On a technical rescue incident, size up should be initiated at the time of dispatch, and due to the dynamic nature of the event, it should be continually updated throughout. This will ensure that there are sufficient personnel to accomplish the task, and that the units arriving on scene have personnel who are properly trained and able to accomplish the rescue.
- “Don’t commit all of your personnel to the rescue before the victim is located and assessed. In a wide-area search and rescue operation, this will decrease fatigue in the rescuers and ensure that the proper equipment is used to accomplish the patient treatment and extraction. Sending out teams in pairs to recon, locate and remove the patient makes accountability a lot easier and keeps gear loss to a minimum.
- “When the rescue plan is developed and initiated, start working on the back-up plan and, if possible, an alternate back-up plan. During this rescue, the initial plan for removing the patient was an airboat. Due to the obstacles in the marsh, this turned out to be unfeasible. The back-up plan was to carry the patient across the marshy ground, place him into the Zodiac and transport him out. After problems arose, the Zodiac could not be used. The alternate back-up was used. Don’t write your initial plan in stone. If you do, you’d better have a stone-eraser. Dynamic rescues require dynamic plans.
- “Trust your personnel. When you give tasks to competent personnel, allow them to do the jobs that they are trained to do. The success of this rescue was not due to the plan, but the hard-working individuals who make the plan work.”
