Two loggers have been hospitalized in logging accidents this week.
They were injured in separate incidents.
Thursday, Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District medics responded to a logging accident on the Ames Creek mainline at 10:18 a.m. A 31-year-old male had been struck on the head during a logging operation. The patient was taken by REACH air ambulance to Riverbend Hospital in Springfield.
“The logging crew did an excellent job packaging the patient and getting him to the road where EMS could access him,” said Fire Chief Dave Barringer. “This was an extremely smooth operation. We were really pleased with how smooth it went.”
REACH air ambulance wasable to land closer to the logging accident than medics anticipated, Barringer said, and Linn County Central Dispatch saved medics time by locating the quickest route.
At 3:56 p.m. Dec. 5, Sweet Home medics responded to a report in the Upper Calapooia area of a yarder operator struck in the legs when a log crashed through the cab of his machine. Medics transported the patient to Riverbend Hospital in Springfield by ground ambulance.
In both cases, the district’s four-wheel drive ambulance was a critical part of the response, Barringer said. “EMS crews were able to safely navigate the snow-covered roads to reach the patients. The donor’s intent for the four-wheel drive medic unit was for medics to have the ability to access injured loggers where a two-wheel drive medic unit could not.
“In this case, it met that intent.”
The donor gave SHFAD $100,000 anonymously two years ago after reading about the district’s need for a four-wheel drive medic unit. The donor walked into the Fire Hall, talked to the fire chief and then wrote a check. The check covered the majority of the cost of the new ambulance.
“I don’t believe” either of the loggers is from the local area, Barringer said.