VERNONIA, A logger was flown to a trauma hospital Oct. 14 after a piece of logging equipment rolled down a hillside with the person inside it, at a site so remote that firefighters had to carry the patient 300 yards on a backboard to reach an ambulance, the Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District said.
The district and Metro West Ambulance were dispatched at about 8:26 a.m. to a trauma call at a logging operation near Vernonia, the district said in an incident update posted to its Instagram account that day. When they arrived, the logging crew directed them to the patient. The nearest landing where a fire engine could stage was about 300 yards away.
“Working together, logging crews and fire and EMS personnel safely secured the patient to a backboard and carried them to the ambulance,” the district wrote. The ambulance took the patient to a landing zone, where a Life Flight helicopter flew them to a trauma hospital.
Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire Protection District, Scappoose Fire, Columbia 911 and Oregon State Police assisted. The district did not release the logger’s name, the employer, the type of equipment or the patient’s condition.
The district went out of its way to credit the crew on the hill. “Their assistance was invaluable to responding personnel, and their proactive safety plan was already in place when fire and EMS arrived,” it wrote. “Their cooperation and preparedness helped support the response in a challenging environment.”
Serious injuries at logging sites are investigated by Oregon OSHA, which publishes accident summaries after its inquiries close.