Every minute matters when an accident happens at the industrial park west of Columbus.
It takes about 20 minutes before an ambulance arrives on scene to take an injured worker to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
But since Oct. 1, it now only takes about six minutes before firefighters and paramedics with Industrial Fire and Rescue are on the scene at any of the 30 industry sites in its response area, including Steel Dynamics Inc., PACCAR Engine Company and New Process Steel.
“We can do a lot in that time frame while patients are entangled, trapped (or) whatever the case may be … to get a positive outcome on the other side,” said Neal Austin, Industrial Fire and Rescue station manager.
Those efforts have already paid dividends, Austin said, including saving the lives of two workers critically injured during a November flash fire at SDI’s Biocarbon Solutions plant.
With the gamut of emergencies at the industrial park and the isolated nature of the area, Austin said it was important for the station to be advanced life support certified. That means the paramedics at the station can provide assistance and use supplies beyond just CPR and oxygen, which is what most city and county departments use.
Those supplies include prescription painkillers, intravenous fluids and splints for broken bones. Soon, Austin said the station will be equipped for blood transfusions to help keep a patient stable until an ambulance and other paramedics can arrive on scene.
Rickey Rials, a firefighter and paramedic with the station, said those supplies have helped him save several lives already out at the industrial park.
“We’ve made several calls where it’s benefited people that we were already on scene, taking care of them by the time the ambulance got here,” Rials said. “… (The station has a) low call volume, which is good, but when we get stuff, it’s usually pretty significant stuff. … So it’s good to have ALS capabilities right there fast, so you can help them.”
Austin said the station’s call volume any given day ranges from none to four but since opening the station has responded to roughly 80 emergency calls.
On slower days, a five-person crew on shift may go out and perform a walkthrough on-site with the safety staff of industry partners.
“They’ll take us through their facility and show us where their hazards are, where their safety guards are, (and) how to get in the facility,” Austin said. “… One thing that I want to make sure that we have got down is when the address comes in, or the name comes in, our guys know exactly where to go.”
With the help of his pool of roughly 31 part-time firefighters from the Golden Triangle and surrounding areas, Austin said the station has done about 10 of those walk-throughs so far. He hopes to eventually meet with all 30 industry partners.
Josh Westbrook, a firefighter at the station, said those walk-throughs have helped firefighters feel prepared and confident when entering those areas during a response.
“We get to really learn and see what they deal with and their high hazards, and we’re able to adapt to those (and) figure out how to mitigate those issues if they have them,” Westbrook said. “(We do) a lot of hands-on (work) with industry out here, which is probably the perk to being here. So you really specialize in what is needed for each scenario.”
The station was initially funded by a $10 million contribution from SDI. But after the passage of Senate Bill 4134 in April that created a new tax district at the park, a portion of the property taxes generated by the 30 participating industries will support the station.
Austin said through that new funding source, he plans to seek additional investments, like a new on-site training facility for firefighters and other industrial site safety personnel to practice emergency responses.
“It’ll have live burn capabilities, it’ll have man versus machine rescue capabilities (and) confined space (training),” Austin said. “So we can talk about it, but we can also bring the guys in from different plants and let them actually (practice) rescuing and once we build those relationships, our response pool gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And so it helps us (and) it helps the community.”
This story first appeared in Salute to Industry, an annual special publication that focuses on large commercial and industrial development in the region.
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