Howard County Volunteers Provide EMS Coverage at Presidential Inauguration
By EMT Amanda Barnett
January 20, 2009
Eight volunteers and two career personnel from Howard County DFRS spent the historical Inauguration Day battling extreme temperatures and crowds in Washington, D.C. providing EMS coverage to the spectators.
Units went in service in the D.C. area at 6am, and immediately began running calls. Each unit was supplied with a D.C. firefighter to navigate the city and operate the radio. Once a unit met up with their patient and their priority was determined, D.C. fire officials determined which hospital the unit was to transport to. This helped to prevent any one hospital from becoming overcrowded.
With an estimated 2 million spectators and multiple road closures and barricades, the units faced a difficult task navigating to and finding their patients. Early reports suggest that there were 1,300 calls for medical emergencies within the District of Columbia between 6am and 6pm. Ambulances and EMS personnel from Maryland and Virginia travelled to D.C. to provide additional support during the event.
The majority of the calls were for hypothermia and crowd related injuries. Temperatures remained in the high 20's with a wind chill in the teens.
Howard County's units were cut free at 9pm, and returned to their home stations.
Units:
Unit 700, Utility 1, Paramedic 66, Ambulance 16, Transport 18
Back: Mark Grutzmacher (5), Capt. Herman Robertson (1), Steve Parsley (6), Kirsten Cox (6), Lt. Mike Donnelly (1), Battalion Chief Chuck King.
Front: Mandy Barnett (4), Rob Dice (6), Don May (5).
Not Pictured: Brian Grossnickle
I-395 and the 3rd Street Tunnel.
The crowd at 3rd Street and Independence Ave.
During the ceremony while staged at 3rd Street and Independence Ave.
Ambulance 16 at George Washington University Hospital.
Ambulance 16 staged at Engine 23 waiting for the next call.
