Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Amanda Butterfield Reporting Rescuers pulled a woman from a 20 foot deep manhole, and though she wouldn't consider herself lucky, the team that saved her does.
Captain Charles Dejournett, Unified Fire Authority:"We ran this same scenario on the training board probably 30-40 minutes before the call came in."
It just so happened, the crew called to rescue her came straight from training for this very thing. The group of about 20 Hazmat and firefighters who made up the rescue team didn't believe it at first when dispatch called them out. Suddenly, instead of training, they were doing the real thing.
Rescues in small spaces, that's what this team was training for when the phone rang: a woman was down a manhole, injured and cold, stuck in sewage. Quickly, the training that just started that morning turned real.
Steve Schaugaard, Unified Fire Authority: “We're thinking, this is it, we're getting our hands on training right here.”
Capt. Charles Dejaurnett, Unified Fire Authority: "For us it was our lucky day to have everyone there together."
Any other day, this group would have been all over the valley, it would have taken longer to get them all together and organized. But because they were training...
Steve Schaugaard: "It just worked out perfectly."
And they were quickly on their way, going over what they had just learned. Steve Schaugaard went down for the woman and admits it wasn't pretty.
Steve Schaugaard: “IT was a grease tank, stuff put down the drain inside Albertsons where this gets filters to.”
When he reached 71-year old Irene Berrett, he went through all that he had just learned, asked how she was, where she hurt, and strapped her into a harness.
Steve Schaugaard: "She said, 'Okay, be careful be careful.'"
The woman was flown to the hospital. The team evaluated their performance.
Capt. Charles Dejaurnett, Unified Fire Authority: "I think it couldn't have gone smoother for, as far in training as we are."
Then it was back to training, they've still got a week left. And for all of them, especially Steve, they'll probably be paying that much more attention, knowing the phone could ring again.
According to a close family friend, Irene Berrett has been in surgery; she broke her leg pretty badly, but it's not life threatening.
Police say moments before the fall, a man was pumping out the sewage tank. He left the manhole uncovered while he put his gear away, that's when Berrett fell in.
