Firefighters free man trapped in beet harvester in rural Forest Grove

Just after 3:30 pm on the afternoon of Thursday September 26th, 2013 Firefighters from Forest Grove Fire & Rescue and the Cornelius Fire Department were called to the middle of a beet crop field where a farmer had become trapped in a “beet digger” harvester. The crew of three farm workers were previously harvesting beets in the field in the 1700 block of SW Stringtown Road when they reported that the machine had become clogged with beets and soil. One of the workers jumped up to the top of the harvester, which basically digs beets from the soil and transfers them via conveyor belt to a truck that travels along side of it, and began to try and fix the clogged machine when he slipped and his foot and lower leg became tangled in the conveyor belt and ended up badly trapped. When firefighters arrived the farm workers were using large tools to try and keep the working parts off the trapped man’s legs, and initially firefighters attempted to use
large pry bars to no avail either. Firefighters were able to deploy two hydraulic rescue tools, like those typically used on car crash scenes, to apply enough leverage to spread the working parts of the harvester and after about 30 minutes of working on it, they were able to free the man from the machine.

firefighters begin to use hand tools to work to free the injured farm worker

 The injured 40’s aged man, who was conscious, alert, and talking to firefighters throughout the incident, he was transferred to a waiting Metro West Ambulance and taken to the trauma center at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland with non life threatening injuries, but what appeared to be moderate injuries to his lower leg.

after about 30 minutes of working on the machine, firefighters were able to free the injured worker

This was the second in a series of serious traumatic injury calls for Forest Grove’s Firefighters on Thursday afternoon, as crews were already responding to a crash on the Wilson River Highway west of the city that injured two people at the same time of this incident. One of these injuries was considered serious enough and was also transported to the trauma center in Portland.

New Blog Address

If you are subscribed to updates or regularly follow our blog you might have noticed a new logo at the top and a new web address for this page.  A little history and why we made the change.  In 2010 when longtime Fire Chief Chis Asanovic retired from the Cornelius Fire Department, the City of Cornelius and the City of Forest Grove entered into an agreement to share administrative services.  This sharing of the Fire Chief eventually led to increased cooperation between the neighboring agencies, allowing for more firefighter training and standardization of practices and equipment then ever before, all for the good of the entire community.  For decades before this, the two fire departments routinely supported each other on fire calls but rarely practiced together and both had different styles, procedures, and equipment that at times led to less than desirable situations on emergency scenes.  With this new partnership we were able to break down some of these walls and eliminate differences, eventually getting to a point where the two agencies can work seamlessly on calls, thus allowing for a more efficient response to emergencies in both cities and rural fire districts.  

One of the benefits of this partnership is the sharing of specialized resources and that's what gets us to this blog.  With the retirement of Chief Asanovic, Cornelius lost their Public Information Officer, while at Forest Grove the Fire Chief assigns this information and education duty to the staff of the Fire Prevention Division.  With an already established, effective, and well regarded, public information program in place in Forest Grove, the natural step was to share the efforts with the Cornelius Fire Department so there was one voice from the agency when discussing an incident or a department program.   

We hope you enjoy the change, hopefully we'll be blogging a lot more about the things you want to know and the things we hope will make our entire community safer in the future.  As always, don't hesitate to comment here or drop us a private email to let us know what we can do better.  Our Fire Prevention Chief David Nemeyer can be reached at 503-992-3177 or via email at dnemeyer@forestgrove-or.gov

 

Family Practices Fire Escape Plan and Escapes Unharmed

On the evening of Sunday, September 8, Firefighters were dispatched to a house at located at 1112 Alyssum Ave in Forest Grove. Firefighters arrived a few minutes later to find heavy amounts of fire coming from the garage and spreading up the wall as well as into the attic. At this time the incident commander called for a 2nd Alarm bring additional fire crews from neighboring departments. Using multiple hose lines, firefighters were able to quickly extinguish a majority of the flames. After approximately 15 minutes, all flames in the garage and the attic were extinguished. Firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading into the living por tion of the house.

At the time of the fire, a mother and four children were home, they were able to get out of the house unharmed. When the mother discovered the flames shooting out of the garage, she instructed the two older children to follow their fire escape plan, which was to get out of the house and meet at a mailbox across the street. While they did this, the mother was able to get the younger children from the dinner table and exit the house. The children had been taught to do this and practiced many times, and helped prevent anyone from getting injured by the fire. 

Firefighters remained on scene for multiple hours making sure all hot spots were put out. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the probable area of origin is located near a refrigerator in the garage. The fire is initially estimated to have caused at least $40,000 in damage.

Forest Grove Fire and Rescue urges parents to practice a fire escape plan with their children. Teach children to get out of the house and stay out, to meet at a pre-determined place like a mailbox, a tree, end of a driveway or a neighbor's house. Also practice knowing two ways out of your house. It is suggested to practice a fire escape drill every few months like children do at school. Tonight's fire is a good example of how a fire escape plan worked and prevented harm.

Forest Grove Fire & Rescue was assisted on scene by Cornelius Fire Department, Hillsboro Fire, Banks Fire and Gaston Fire.