Houston responders ready to hit the trails

PALMER — What’s red, shaped like a spaceship and built from molded plastic?

That would have to be the Houston Fire Department’s brand new “Snowbulance.”

“Snow,” because it’s built to be towed behind a snowmachine on skis or behind a four-wheeler on wheels and “-bulance” because, like a traditional Mat-Su Borough ambulance, the Snowbulance is designed to carry patients and give medics a place to work on patients.

“To our knowledge we have the only one in the state,” Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson said Wednesday.

The trailer arrived late last month. Christian Hartley — a Houston firefighter who writes grant applications for the city, including the successful application to the Mat-Su Health Foundation for the Snowbulance — said that in a place as outdoor-recreation crazed as Houston, its uncrating didn’t go unnoticed.

“People were driving in here and stopping,” he said as he stood outside the city’s Parks Highway fire station.

They all said similar things, said Houston Fire Chief Tom Hood: “I want one of those!”

The Mat-Su Health Foundation grant came through for 60 percent of the $7,200 price tag. It was to be a $9,000 trailer, but Carlile Transportation Systems gave the city a break on shipping costs.

The Valley’s enthusiasm for snowmachining and four-wheeling is part of what makes Houston a good fit for such a tool, Hartley said, pointing out that the fire station sits next to a road that leads to the Zero Lake trailhead. From there, a person can access all kinds of very popular trails. At least a handful of those people have needed medical attention in recent years.

Houston doesn’t need to bother with a trailer to get there, so rescuers got to the scene much quicker than a lot of departments. Hartley recalled one call-out in which responders were on the trail in three minutes and on scene in 15.

But that kind of trailside work is always hampered by a lack of an ambulance. Hartley said that sometimes responders put the patient on a backboard and strap the backboard to the front of a four-wheeler, then inch their way down the trail at walking speed.

Traditional pull-behind trailers are useful to a point, but they aren’t enclosed — meaning more risk of exposure and hypothermia — and there’s no place for a medic to sit next to the patient and work on them.

The Snowbulance solves both of those problems, and it has a heater and a dome light. The heater is the key.

“A person wearing full snowmachine gear isn’t easy to work on,” Hartley said.

“And you don’t want to cut it off of them in the cold,” added the mayor.

Hartley said the department might only use the sled two or three times a year, but it’s always available — to Houston and to other borough departments with which Houston has an agreement to assist on calls.

“You feel the cold a lot more when you have possible trauma,” he said. And for the medics working on them? “Imagine trying to start an IV at 40 below!”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.