Paramedics cannot take a snow day, even when a late winter storm dumped over 20-30 cm of snow over a three day period.
Derek D. Dagenais, Advanced Care Paramedic and Supervisor with Humboldt & District Ambulance Service, says it was a challenge working in the storm but had plenty of help from residents and the Humboldt and District Fire Department.
In that type of weather, any non-critical cases, like transfers, are postponed for another day, says Dagenais, so they could focus on calls they received from residents.
During the 12 hour height of the storm, Dagenais says they received seven calls, two of which were related to the storm, and three where the fire department was called in for assistance.
Many instances took shoveling off steps to allow transportation of patients from their homes.
“We had one instance where we had the Fire Department do some fairly heaviy shovelling for us due to the status of the patient...luckily in this event, we didn’t have to use the Kubota to access anybody that way.”
During one instance during a call north of the city, Reg Puetz took the initiative to plow a turnaround area and a path out of the area for the ambulance.
Humboldt and District Ambulance thanked Puetz on their Facebook.
Fire Chief Mike Kwasnica says the Humboldt and District Fire Department was lucky enough not to receive any calls related to fires in the area but was more than ready to help out the Humboldt and District Ambulance Service.
“We do a lot of work back and front between us and EMS and we need help they’re there to help us and vise versa.”
The Humboldt Fire has two 4-wheel-drive vehicles where they can get anywhere they need to be during a heavy snowfall, says Kwasnica.
Right now with the snow, Kwasnica says they will be on the hunt for buried fire hydrants that have disappeared because of freshly fallen or freshly plowed snow.
“We have a map showing where the hydrants are, so we’re going around the city and looking at where the ones that are totally missing are.”
Kwasnica is encouraging everyone to take a few minutes to plow around the fire hydrants that may be on their property.
“It may be beneficial if they need it,” says Kwasnica.
