On July 17, 2014 we responded to a
call in the Tillamook State Forest where a man working for a Washington
County Surveying team had fallen into a ravine. When firefighters and
paramedics arrived they found 57 year old Dennis Keister in extreme pain
after falling what looked to be at least thirty feet down a rocky ledge
over a dry creek bed. Mr. Keister had suffered severe trauma to his
chest and paramedics were concerned that he could have suffered internal
injuries that would eventually cost him is life. This scene was up a
long trail, in difficult terrain, and the work of carrying Mr. Keister
out would have likely caused more serious injuries, so our crews called
for assistance from the United States Coast Guard helicopters out of
nearby Astoria Air Station.
Within
a matter of minutes, a Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk piloted crewed by Lt.
Commander Dan Leary pilot, Lieutenant Jason Maddux co-pilot, swimmer
ASTC Joel Sayers, and Flight Mechanics AMT2 Josh Holt and Dan Bovard
arrived on station and began to set up for hoisting the injured surveyor
from the ravine. The Coast Guard Jayhawk came in and lowered their
rescue swimmer down to where our crews awaited him, and they began to
formulate a plan to get the helicopter down into the very tight area.
Crews packaged Mr. Keister and gave him a helmet to wear to protect him
during the hoist in the rescue basket and Lt. Commander Leary brought
the aircraft in, hovering below the tree tops that surrounded the creek
bed. Aircrews and firefighters worked together to hoist the victim into
the hovering helicopter, and then it was our turn. Firefighter and
Paramedic Rick Ilg was attached to ASTC Sayers and also hoisted into the
aircraft to provide critical advanced life support care to Mr. Keister
if needed during the flight to St. Vincent's Hospital. In under twenty
minutes, the Coast Guard crew delivered Mr. Keister to the helipad at
St. Vincents hospital in Beaverton where he was rushed off to be treated
for his injuries.
Calls
like this are a somewhat rare occurrence for our crews, but ironically
this one came nearly a year to the day from a call in 2013 where a Coast
Guard helicopter was called to rescue a badly injured logger in the
same part of our forest. In the last thirteen years, Forest Grove Fire
& Rescue has requested Coast Guard air support for four calls in
our area, every time the Coast Guard crew responds with extreme skill
and courage in the face of difficult circumstances. On September 16,
2014 we got a chance to share our appreciation for the Coast Guard air
crew when we visited their Air Station Astoria along with Mr. Keister
and his family. This was a wonderful occasion to gather around and
relive the call, talk about the use of the Coast Guard helicopter in our
area, and become familiar with their equipment. It was also a
tremendous occasion to spend it with the man who was saved through the
work of the US Coast Guard, with his family along side of him to
celebrate it all. Our firefighters and their families were treated to a
tour of the aircraft hangar and firefighting equipment at the air
station, and also got to meet in person with the people that they worked
with that day in July. We would like to extend our sincere
appreciation to the men and women of the United States Coast Guard for
not only a job well done on this incident, but for protecting our nation
each and every day.
A full photo slideshow of the call and the visit at the air station can be found here.
Meet your Firefighters: Jay Edwards joined our full time staff on January 27, and recently completed his initial training and has received his first assignment to our C Shift. We were honored to hire the 34 year old husband and father straight out of our volunteer program, where he has been involved with us since 2010. the native of California, Jay and his wife Tereza now live with their daughter Callie in South East Portland, but he came to Oregon after falling in love with the beauty of our state during a visit with friends. Jay's taken advantage of the Oregon scene, and now enjoys camping and hiking, and all things outdoors here in the Pacific Northwest; last year he competed in his first marathon in the annual Portland Marathon where he proudly finished the 26.2 miles. For the last three years Jay has also competed in the Seattle and Portland Stairclimb teams here with us, completing the grueling climbs in full firefighter gear to raise money for medical research.
When Jay found out he was going to be a dad he thought it was best to prepare for anything that could happen to his young family, so he went to look for a CPR class. During this search he decided to just take a full emergency medical technician class instead, and during a ride along to complete his coursework, he ran a call with a fire department and instantly knew that this was a career for him. Family is extremely important to Jay, and he appreciates all that his parents and sister in California did to inspire him. He remains close with his immediate family, and considers them a big part of his life.
The graduate of Northern Arizona University, once aspired to be a professional journalist with his communications degree, and he has traveled Europe on a train with nothing more than a back pack. He's a wonderful addition to our crew, and brings a diverse background and life experiences to the team. We are happy to have you working alongside of us Jay Edwards, welcome aboard!
