MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS
Before the fire department became a first responder on all ambulance calls, the majority of rescue runs were for traffic accidents.
In the early days of motor vehicle accidents, before modern medical and extrication methods were developed, the only way to extricate a victim from a vehicle was by using heavy pry bars to wedge the bent metal apart. This worked fairly well in the early days of automobiles, because most cars were not built as substantially as they are today. The 1920s and early 1930s Chevrolets, in fact, were built on wooden frames that were covered by a thin skin of sheet metal. The Ford Model T and Model A bodies were built on a steel frame with wooden frames installed inside to hold the upholstery. Most vehicle roofs had a large open area covered by vinyl on the exterior and upholstery material on the inside. Therefore, getting inside the vehicle wasn't too hard with a large enough pry bar.
The Model A, one of the most popular cars ever made, had another safety design flaw that made crashes and rescue more dangerous. The Model A's 10 gallon gasoline tank is located below the windshield and forms the vehicle's dash board. Therefore, the driver is literally sitting with 10 gallons of gasoline in their lap. The tank is not double-walled. If you drill or punch a hole in the dash, you are drilling or punching directly into the gas tank.
As vehicles became faster and were built more substantially from the latter 1930s into the 1960s, vehicle rescue became more complex. Bodies were made stronger, engines larger, and the vehicles could travel faster. Therefore, when they struck a solid object or particularly another vehicle moving in the opposite direction, kinetic forces were multiplied many times. Once the stronger body and frame metal was bent, it was much harder to pry apart.
If manual force and pry bars didn't work, automobile wrecker services extricated traffic accident victims by simple brute force. If a victim was trapped in a wrecked vehicle, the first wreckers arriving at the scene would connect one or more cables to the vehicle and pull the metal apart until the victim could be removed. This was not only dangerous, but could further injure the patient or nearby emergency workers if a cable slipped as the metal was separated. If the metal could not be slowly separated by constant cable pressure, two wreckers might hook cables to the vehicle from opposite directions to pull the bent metal apart.
As portable hydraulic jack technology developed, wrecker services began to equip their wreckers with portable hydraulic jacks, called "port-a-powers." The hand-pumped port-a-power, developed for use in the body shop to straighten bent vehicles, came with several heads that could be attached to various parts of the vehicle to either pull or spread metal. The port-a-power allowed rescuers to use hydraulic power to open jammed doors or to sometimes bend twisted steering columns enough to remove the victim. Keep in mind that steering columns were solid and were not designed to collapse internally as they do today. It was not uncommon for people to be impaled on the steering column or trapped when it was shoved against their chest. The port-a-power meant that the victim could be removed with far less external trauma from having to jerk the vehicle apart. Additionally, twisted metal could be removed by small and carefully controlled movements rather than the harsh jerks caused by wrecker cables that could not be controlled as gracefully. Once extricated, the victim was still subject to "grab and haul" transportation to the hospital, but much less additional trauma at the scene.
In addition to port-a-powers, the Fire Department purchased a portable gasoline-powered metal saw with a carbide blade to saw bent vehicles apart. This greatly reduced the time necessary to remove someone from a vehicle and was the fastest and most efficient method available in its day. However, it had a major drawback. Friction between the saw blade and the metal created a large shower of sparks which was dangerous in the presence of spilled gasoline.
Shortly after the fire department got the metal saw, they were called to a recovery near the Cookville roadside park. A vehicle had hit a tree along the roadside in the park during a rain storm. The driver was killed in the accident, but his body was pinned in the vehicle and the fire department was called to extricate the body. The firemen stood in pools of water over the top of their ankles and began sawing the vehicle. A detail that they had missed was the fact that gasoline had dripped from the fuel tank and was now floating on top of the water. The shower of sparks ignited the gasoline, and the rescue workers had to retreat until the fire could be extinguished. From that time forward, firemen in full bunker gear with charged hose lines were deployed as a precaution at each rescue to protect both the patient and other firemen.
The Volunteer Fire Department, through their annual turkey shoot, chili suppers, and other events, raised additional funds to purchase equipment that was not provided for in City or County budgets. They also held special fund drives when the need arose. An example of this was the department's purchase of its first Hurst Jaws of Life used to extricate traffic accident victims pinned in demolished vehicles.
Hurst Corporation designed and built a revolutionary new power hydraulic cutting tool that had the force to snip the bent metal of a crashed vehicle without jarring or creating sparks. Hurst Corporation designed the tool, called the Jaws of Life, to extricate racing drivers from vehicles. The Hurst Jaws of Life was extremely expensive in its day, around $6,500, and worth every penny. The Volunteer Fire Department held several fund-raisers until they raised enough money to buy a Jaws of Life for Mount Pleasant, and Mt. Pleasant was one of the first towns in Northeast Texas to have a Jaws of Life available for accident victims. Several people owe their lives to the fire department being available to safely and quickly remove them from a crashed vehicle. The original Jaws of Life tool is still in use in 2007, and the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department has added two more to their inventory.
EMERGENCY CARE TRAINING
As rescue equipment advanced, so did advancements in patient care at the scene. In the early days (before the 1930s) there were no ambulances. If a person had an accident, passers-by would take them to the doctor in a private vehicle the best way they could. Many times, improperly moving the patient could make injuries worse. Fractures could become compound fractures, broken ribs could puncture lungs or arteries, and skeletal nerves could be pinched or severed resulting in permanent paralysis.
As early as 1931, the fire department taught resuscitation classes to its members. Since medical knowledge was far behind what it is today, this was advanced first responder training.
Even after Riddle & Stephenson and Thomas & Masters funeral homes bought ambulances, care was little better. The problem was further complicated by the fact that there was no hospital in Mt. Pleasant between approximately 1918 and 1936, when Dr. W. A. Taylor built the Taylor Hospital and Clinic. Accident victims were often carried to their own home and a doctor was called. The homes were obviously not equipped to deal with critically injured people. People who were strong and lucky enough to make it were usually taken to hospitals in Paris or Dallas.
Before modern medical and extrication methods were developed, automobile wrecker services extricated traffic accident victims by simple brute After the metal was separated sufficiently to remove the victim, they were quickly placed on a gurney, put in the ambulance, and driven at top speed to the hospital. Local funeral homes continued to provided ambulance service until the early 1970s, and no or at best minimal first aid was given and the scene or en-route to the hospital. While firemen or others at the scene might splint fractures or give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, little else could be done. Needless to say, many people died if not from the initial accident, from rough handling or lack of immediate care at the scene.
From the time automobiles became common into the mid-1970s, this method of handling accident victims was not substandard-it was the only way people knew. The best care of the day was to get the victim to the hospital quickly so they could be cared for. As rescue methods advanced, people associated with emergency services referred to the old method as "grab and haul" - in other words, "grab 'em by the belt, put 'em on the gurney, and haul 'em to the hospital."
The Mt. Pleasant Fire Department's first and second rescue units were not equipped much better than the funeral home ambulances. They contained a gurney, commonly called a cot, a resuscitator, an oxygen bottles, and in their day a pretty well-equipped first aid kit consisting mainly of bandaging materials and a few over-the-counter medications.
Emergency Care Attendants
In the early 1970s, the State of Texas Health Department began offering advanced emergency care classes for first responders. The Mt. Pleasant Fire Department was one of the first in Northeast Texas to send members to the training classes. The classes taught proper splinting, and a new method of resuscitation known as Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (or CPR). Upon successful completion of the classes, attendees were given the rating of an Emergency Care Attendant (or ECA).
As training progressed, the fire department upgraded its rescue unit in step with knowledge of the time. The 1976 rescue unit was the first one to contain large supplies of first aid supplies, specialized exterior lighting to allow better lighting at a rescue scene and interior lights that allowed attendants to work on patients while en-route to the hospital.
Paramedics
In the October 6, 1977 regular meeting, Chief Rex Mars announced to the department that David Ward, Robert Terry, and Kelly Reichman had achieved their Paramedic certifications. The Mt. Pleasant Fire Department Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics were the core of Titus County Memorial Hospital's forming an advanced emergency ambulance service. Mt. Pleasant was the first city in Northeast Texas to have Paramedic level care with Mobile Intensive Care Unit ambulances. All three of the original paramedics, and several who followed them, went on to work at Titus County Memorial Hospital and other hospitals over time. As of early 2008, Kelly Reichman works at Titus Regional Medical Center, David Ward achieved a Physician's Assistant license and has a family practice in Forney, Texas, and Rickey Reeves, who was once Director of Titus Regional Medical Center's ambulance service, works for the Lewisville, Texas, EMS.
DIVE TEAM
A considerable number of rescue calls answered by the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department are for drownings in area lakes and creeks. In the latter 1950s or early 1960s, the Fire Department obtained a hard diving helmet connected to a manual air pump by a long hose that could be used to lower divers into the water.
However, no one was specifically trained as a diver and use of the early equipment was dangerous for untrained people to use.
In the 1970s, the fire department purchased several sets of scuba gear. Additionally, several of the volunteer firemen paid their own way to become certified scuba divers. They in turn taught others how to dive, using Dellwood swimming pool as a training ground.
SOME MEMORABLE RESCUE CALLS
RICKY NELSON AIRPLANE CRASH AND FIRE
On the evening of December 31, 1985, the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department received a call that a passenger plane had reported its cabin filled with smoke and a possible on-board fire and requested that the Mt. Pleasants Fire Department respond. The fire department responded
The fixed-wing, propeller driven Douglas DC-3 airplane was occupied by a pilot, co-pilot, music icon Ricky Nelson, his fiancée Helen Blair, and the five members of his Stone Canyon Band. The group was traveling from a show the night before in Alabama to a sold-out New Year's Eve show at the Dallas Park Suites Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
The DC-3 cabin filled with smoke mid-flight and the pilots advised the Texarkana airport control tower of their situation and that they didn't know if they could make it to Mt. Pleasant Airport or back to Texarkana.
The pilots executed a good emergency landing, landing with the plane intact in a pasture near DeKalb, Texas, but the plane clipped two electric power poles and burned. The pilot and co-pilot escaped through the cockpit window and were taken to a Texarkana hospital. The burning plane trapped the seven passengers inside, killing all aboard. Their bodies were found just outside the cockpit door in the front of the cabin.
After an investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that a malfunctioning cabin heater caused the in-flight fire. The pilot indicated that the crew repeatedly tried to turn on the cabin heater shortly before the fire, but it failed to respond. An examination indicated the fire originated in the right hand side of the aft cabin area at or near the floor line. After the fire, the heater compartment's access panel was found unlatched and that the only fire extinguisher that had been used was in the rear cabin area. The theory is supported by records showing that DC-3s in general, and this aircraft in particular, had a previous history of cabin heater problems.
