Hampered by stairs buried in snow and ice, Ansonia firefighters used a chainsaw and ladder truck to pluck a man from a second story apartment Wednesday morning.
The precise nature of the call wasn’t specified. The patient was taken to Griffin Hospital. His name wasn’t available and his condition is unknown.
Firefighters and EMS received a medical call around 8:30 a.m. for a person living in an apartment on Smith Street.
Emergency crews began to shovel snow off the pathway leading to snow-covered stairs on the side of the multi-family house that led up to the patient.
Ansonia Fire Department Assistant Chief Edward Adamowski said the crew quickly realized shoveling would take too long.
Firefighters then extended a ladder from a fire truck on the street, over a driveway and to a side door on the second-story porch. Firefighters used a chainsaw to cut away the side railing so the patient could be placed in a Stokes basket, a type of stretcher.
The man’s weight complicated the matter as well.
“We cut a piece of the porch away. It was the quickest way to get from point A to point B, into an ambulance and to the hospital,” Adamowski said.
The process took under 10 minutes, he said.
The Blizzard of 2013 made for grueling work for area volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel in the lower Valley. “Routine calls” is no longer a term because of the snow still covering the region.
Adamowski said vehicles responding Friday to calls got stuck in the blizzard — something that was happening all over the Valley in the height of the storm.
Ansonia firefighters had to walk from Main Street to one call in the area of 181 N. State St. during the blizzard because equipment couldn’t navigate the streets. The firefighters at the Eagle Hose used Facebook to post photos as the storm approached.
Ansonia FD had a bunch of calls regarding carbon monoxide alarms during the storm. Most of those calls were because residents had not shoveled snow away from vents on the side of their homes.
Luckily, no serious injuries were reported.
