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A Technical Rescue
Team's First Rescue.
 The Syosset Fire Department is located on
the north shore of Long Island, New York. Each day the department protects
over 150,000 people in 40,000 homes and numerous industrial parks. The Sysosset
Fire Department is one of Long Island's largest fire protection districts.
In l992, due to increases in construction, industrial and commercial
presence within the district, the department began assessing its ability
to respond to technical rescue emergencies. After thorough research, the
department determined that both the town of Syosset and the county in which
it is located were in need of trained and equipped technical rescue specialists.
In an attempt to satisfy this need, the Syosset Fire Department Technical
Rescue Team was born. The team was to consist of approximately ten members
trained and equipped to deal with such emergencies as high angle, confined
space, trench and structural collapse incidents.
In April of l994, under the direction of the Urban H.A.R.T. Corporation,
the team began its training. The initial training consisted of forty hour
classes in both high angle and confined space rescue. Later members of the
team would go on to take advanced high angle and confined space classes
as well as trench and structural collapse rescue classes (also with the
Urban H.A.R.T. Corporation).
By October of l995 the team was trained, equipped and ready to be placed
into service. Just three months later, the team would make its first rescue.
On January 3l, l996 at l5:l6 hours, the Syosset Fire Department received
a request for an ambulance, at the service road of the Long Island Expressway
in Syosset, for an unknown type of aid. Minutes after the initial alarm
the first arriving units were met by several frantic construction workers.
The workers advised them that one of their co-workers had been working atop
of a l00' pile driver when he was struck by a piece of equipment and fell.
During the fall, the construction worker had managed to entangle one of
his legs in the pile driver's horizontal supports which prevented him from
falling to the ground below. The worker was left suspended upside down some
55 feet in the air and held only by his entangled leg. To try and assist
their friend, two of the workers had climbed the pile driver and were attempting
to prevent him from falling.
Upon arrival of Second Assistant Chief Nicholas Favata, the firefighters
had already made futile attempts at rescuing the victim with ladder trucks.
The first attempt by the Department's 75 foot ladder fell short of its mark.
The second attempt with the Department's l00 foot tower ladder was obstructed
by power lines, construction equipment and grid locked fire apparatus. Fifteen
minutes had elapsed since the construction worker had fallen and his condition
was deteriorating dramatically. A combination of the worker's injuries and
the effects of the sub-zero temperatures had pushed him into unconsciousness.
His two workers, also feeling the effects of the bitter cold were fighting
to maintain their grip on their injured friend.
Determining a need for an immediate alternative to the use of the two
ladders, Chief Favata called the Department's Technical Rescue Team to the
scene. Within minutes the Team was at the scene and placed into action.
The potential for somebody either falling or dropping a piece of equipment
posied a threat of serious injury to the crowd that had formed below the
pile driver. Firefighters Kevin Lee and Stephen Morris, who had been trained
to a support level, began establishing safety zones on the ground below.
Civilians and unnecessary emergency workers were moved to a safer location.
Meanwhile, the Team's captain, James Corleto began a 50 foot ascent
to the victim in an attempt to prevent the worker from falling to the street
below. Upon reaching the victim, Captain Corleto, using a piece of l' tubular
webbing, secured the victim to the pile driver with both a hasty harness
and a chest harness. Once the victim had been secured, Captain Corleto was
able to begin a primary assessment of the victim's injuries and medical
condition.
On the ground below, firefighters and construction workers had been
working swiftly to make a suitable site for the repositioning of the tower
ladder. The tower ladder, now in place on the ground, was moving it's bucket
into position next to the injured worker.
On the tower, Captain Corleto had determined that the victim was suffering
from the effects of hypothermia as well as a possible fracture of the entangled
leg and several ribs. With only seconds until the bucket would be there,
Corleto could now only wait.
Once the bucket was in place, Captain Corleto, with the assistance of
two other firefighters maneuvered the victim into the bucket for his safe
removal to the ground. On the ground, a team of Emergency Medical Technicians,
with immobilization equipment and a waiting helicopter, were ready to administer
care to the victim. Once safely on the ground, the victim was fully immobilized
and flown to the Nassau County Medical Center where he was to spend time
in the facilities Intensive Care Unit.
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