Giant Tool Box—

Hawleyville Fire Rescue Truck Primed For Emergency Responses

By Andrew Gorosko

Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company Chief Paul Basso recalls an especially serious one-vehicle rollover accident that occurred at dusk last April 14, on Hawleyville Road, not far from the company’s firehouse.

In that accident, Justin Sokol of New Milford, who was then age 10, was the front seat passenger in a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee sport-utility being driven northward by his mother. Justin’s 7-year-old brother was a rear seat passenger.

While traveling on a curve to the left, the vehicle drifted off the right road shoulder, struck a guardrail, and then rolled over several times, coming to rest on its roof in the middle of Hawleyville Road, at its intersection with North Ridge Drive.

After arriving at the crash scene in their rescue truck, Hawleyville firefighters worked quickly, but carefully, to extricate the unconscious trapped boy from the vehicle following 20 minutes of rescue work.

Justin, who was still wearing a seatbelt, was trapped inside the upturned vehicle, hanging upside down, making for a complex, delicate extrication.

Following the rescue, the injured boy was airlifted to Yale-New Haven Hospital in critical condition, after having been initially transported to Danbury Hospital by the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Recalling the accident, Chief Basso said that Justin has pulled through his injuries and is on the road to recovery, having returned to school. Following the crash, police charged the boy’s mother with driving under the influence, among other violations.

Firefighters’ extrication skills, amplified by the various equipment kept on board the fire company’s rescue truck, made Justin’s medical recovery possible, said Chief Basso and fire company Captain Dave Jossick.

“Just that one [rescue] call made it worth spending $160,000 on this [truck],” said Chief Basso as he displayed the panoply of equipment carried by the 18-ton heavy rescue vehicle designated “Rescue 334” by the town. Each of the town’s five volunteer fire companies has a rescue truck.

Hawleyville firefighters purchased the used 1994 Salisbury rescue truck in 2004 for $160,000 from the Clifford Township Volunteer Fire Company in Clifford, Penn., which is in Susquehanna County.

The rescue truck is housed in the Hawleyville Fire House, which fire company members modernized several years ago. The fire company has about 35 members.

Some of the vehicles used by the town’s five volunteer fire companies are owned by the fire companies, while other vehicles are owned by the town and operated by the companies on behalf of the town. The Hawleyville rescue truck’s designated engineer is Hans VanDerMeulen.

The rescue truck, like other Hawleyville fire trucks, has the distinctive Chicago-style coloration, which combines red, black, gold leaf, and chrome in the truck’s design.

 “It’s a giant tool box,” explained Chief Basso in opening the many equipment cabinets positioned along the sides and top of the truck. The heavily equipped vehicle allows firefighters to deal with a full-range of emergency/rescue situations that they may encounter while responding to calls.

The rescue truck is used in responding to motor vehicle accidents, many of which occur on the nearby heavily traveled Interstate 84. The Hawleyville fire station is about one-half mile north of Exit 9 of I-84.

About two-thirds of the motor vehicle accidents to which the rescue truck is sent occur on I-84. Many of those I-84 accidents take place on the eastbound side of the highway, often in the area where the interstate crosses above Hanover Road, Chief Basso said.

It was there, early last Thanksgiving morning, as heavy snow fell during a late autumn storm, that an estimated 35 vehicles were involved in a massive accident on an icy eastbound I-84. The eastbound lanes were closed to traffic for more than three hours as emergency service workers picked through the wreckage. Motorists from at least 11 states were involved.

After 15 or more injured people were transported to Danbury Hospital, the many wrecked vehicles were towed away.

That accident was the largest such incident in memory, Chief Basso said.

Besides motor vehicle accidents, the rescue truck responds to hazardous materials situations, as well as automotive fluid spills. The vehicle also is dispatched to structure fires, as well as fire alarm calls and medical calls. The rescue truck has an expanded cab, which has space for five firefighters.

Gear housed on the rescue truck includes a heart defibrillator, assorted medical equipment and supplies, firefighter air packs, fire extinguishers, patient backboards and isolation baskets, neck collars, a pneumatic chisel, ventilation fans, tarpaulins, vehicle jacks, chains, ladders, a telescopic lighting tower, protective clothing, blankets, a full range of hand tools and power tools, and a variety of hydraulic tools used to extricate people who are trapped in motor vehicle accidents, plus other implements.

Chief Basso said the fire company hopes to get 10 to 15 years of service from the rescue truck, which has approximately 25,000 miles on its odometer.

Besides the rescue truck, the fire company has a fire engine, a minipumper truck, and a tanker truck.