Muddy Brook Fire Department

On October 10, 2020 Muddy Brook Fire Department was called in as a mutual aid heavy rescue assignment for a helicopter accident with entrapment. Upon arrival MBFD was tasked with lifting a helicopter off of a patient so that he could be extricated from the cockpit of the downed aircraft. We immediately deployed multiple cribbing points to stabilize the helicopter and utilized our Paratech Maxiforce lifting bags to perform the lift. We utilized 2 different bags simultaneously from the truck mount air system to a single controller. One as the primary lifting device and the other directly next to the patient as a safety measure. The difficulty was that the patient care and the lift were taking place on opposite sides of the aircraft with no visual and limited audible contact. Deputy Chief Morse was operational command and orchestrated the lift with no further injury to the patient. Communication between the extrication team and the lift team was paramount and the lift was carried out perfectly! The patient was then taken ALS by the Lifestar helicopter to a trauma center and ultimately survived.