Mat-Su EMS officials reflect on Tuesday’s flurry of 911 calls

PALMER — Mat-Su Borough EMS Deputy Director Lisa Behrens said it was “…not just the number of calls…but the severity. We had one severe call after another.”

She, along with borough EMS Director Otto Feather, and Mat-Su Fire and Rescue Deputy Director Ken Barkley met outside the borough administrative complex for a brief synopsis of the events that began mid-afternoon Tuesday.

In a two-to-three hour time frame, Valley EMS, police, Alaska State Troopers, along with some help from Anchorage, responded to more than a half-dozen serious calls from Hatcher Pass to Butte.

“We probably have had one of our toughest days we’ve had in quite some time just in terms of total calls and the severity of the calls,” said Feather. He began with the first call of a well cave-in in Butte. “They were in pretty dire straits.”

Around 2:30 p.m., Palmer dispatch announced two men were trapped in an approximate 15-foot well that had partially caved in.

“They were trapped. We set up an initial rescue. Butte Fire Department showed up on location first,” said Barkley. He said rescue personnel attempted to rig a rope to extract the two men out of the well casing. Having no luck, the borough contacted the Municipality of Anchorage which sent its confined space team up to assist. “It was a pretty lengthy process…but we were able to extract them.”

Feather said the operation was textbook noting firefighters and medics are used to dealing with a great deal of mayhem.

“We don’t have that capability here in the borough…it is specialized and requires a lot of training. It allowed us to get in there and get those guys extracted. They were in a bad way,” said Feather.

After the Butte call came on, Behrens reflected on additional critical dispatches that hit the airwaves over the next several hours. Included were a nine-victim motor vehicle accident on Knik-Goose Bay Road (KGB), a simultaneous accident on Old Glenn Highway, a toddler that dumped lighter fluid on herself and drank a quantity of it as well, a call of an unconscious person in Wasilla, and a downed para-glider rescue in Hatcher Pass.

KGB was closed near the evening commute along the usually congested stretch from Parks Highway to Vine. Lifemed landed directly on the road to transfer victims to area hospitals.

“It’s been an unbelievable day but a good example when the proverbial hits the fan,” Behrens said. She said borough EMS people are always ready for the challenge and, “we didn’t run out of resources.”

Feather said the EMS personnel and their responses were a testament to their training and the resources the people of the borough have given the various departments.

Behrens said on-duty EMS employees weren’t the only ones helping and handling things well. “People were coming from their homes. At any given time, we try to staff five (ambulance crews to cover the borough). We had eight running today.”

“I’m very proud of these guys,” Feather concluded.