| Willingboro firefighters had to rescue a man who's hand got caught in a snow blower after a recent snowstorm. At 11:38 am on January 27th, the department and an EMS unit were called to an address on Southampton Lane for a reported person who's hand was caught in a snow blower. Utility 1616 arrived on location and advised the county's Communications Center that there was nobody trapped at that location. Firefighters were then given the correct address for a home at 56 South Sunset Road.
Utility 1616 and Engine 1613 arrived on South Sunset Road at 11:49 am and found a man with his hand caught down the exit chute of the snow blower. His hand had gotten caught in the blade at the bottom of the chute and was unable to be removed from the unit. Upon sizing up the situation, the crew decided to use an unconventional method to remove the man's hand from the blade. Captain Ramsey had the crew pull the hydraulic extrication tools, the Jaws Of Life, and start cutting away pieces of the snow blower.
Firefighter E. O'Donnell started by using the cutting tool to remove the auger and shaft that controls power to the auger. Firefighter Carty used hand tools to start disassembling the exit chute and talking to the patient about what was taking place. Captain Ramsey and Firefighter Ferrell acted as a second set of eyes for Firefighter O'Donnell during the rescue.
After cutting away the auger and shaft, Firefighter O'Donnell used the spreader tool to spread the housing from around blade which had trapped the man's hand. Once the housing was spread away from the blade, the crew was able to remove the man's hand and turn him over to a waiting EMS unit for treatment and transport to a local hospital. The crew was able to free the man's hand in 14 minutes, and were available from the scene at 12:06 pm |
