Trauma One Spotted In St. Augustine
Published: October 20, 2009
St. Augustine, Fl – For about 6 months I have been trying to capture an allusive beast here in St. Augustine, Many times I have heard the St. Johns County Fire Rescue call a Trauma Alert and request an Air Transport Unit but most of the time I end up missing the helicopter landing by minutes.
Today I was lucky. I finally got the chance to get to a landing and bring you a few images from the landing.
I heard the call go out as a unknown medical and while it sounded minor at first, I caught the dispatcher report back to Rescue 21 that the ATU had been dispatched. After I heard dispatch say that the LZ would be at Flagler, I grabbed my gear and headed up there.
I arrived about 10 minutes prior to the helo coming in and spoke with security at the facility. They look over my credentials and said “Okay, just stay back a bit.”
I grabbed a good spot on the lawn about 50 feet back from the pad and waited. Shortly after the helicopter appeared over the roof of the building making a sort of “crabwalk” approach.
The helicopter came in low, squared up and dropped onto the pad. Almost immediately the flight crew appeared and when over to Rescue 21.
They quickly and efficiently transferred the patient from Rescue 21 to Trauma One using a “Hot Load”. After several minutes on the ground, the helicopter motor started to speed up and almost as fast as it came in, it started to lift off the pad.
All in all, they may have been on the ground for about 5 minutes and never missed a beat during the transfer.
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Author: Christopher Kimball (31 Articles)
Christopher Kimball is a freelance photojournalist and fire service photographer. His work has been featured in 1st Responder News, The St. Augustine Record, Historic City News, Wesay.com, Demotix.com, FireEngineering.com and Firehouse.com. He is a 20 year veteran of the fire service having served as a fire fighter, Lt., Asst. Chief and EMT-I.
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