CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — With many secondary streets still a mess throughout Central Virginia, how are emergency crews able to reach your home?
Kathy Tilbury lives in the Village Woods Subdivision in Chester and her road, like others, haven’t been plowed.
“They are just a mess, you can’t go anywhere and I have been cooped up for 5 days now,” said Tilbury.
Tilbury is a handicapped veteran of Desert Storm. The concern that emergency crews can’t reach her is a major concern. Assistant Chief John Boatwright with Chesterfield Fire and EMS, however, says there is no reason to worry.
“The fire department does not take a snow day,” said Boatwright.
In fact, usually a fire truck will respond with an ambulance to an EMS call, but during the storm and in the aftermath, Chesterfield has placed brush trucks into service instead of a large fire truck. The reason is because if there is no fire, the brush truck is four-wheel drive and can reach places a larger truck may not be able to in the snow.
“Deploy those into the neighborhoods to assist with the emergency medical calls,” Boatwright said. “Most patients that were somewhat stable that we got to we were able to extract those individuals, put them in the 4 wheel drive vehicle and take them to an awaiting ambulance on a primary road.”
Chesterfield Fire also owns several snow plows, so if a patient must be reached with an ambulance, the truck will plow a path.
“Even during white-out conditions, we had responses into communities to provide for the citizens,” Boatwright added.
Chesterfield Fire Officials say as the roads continue to improve, they will reevaluate and start taking some of these brush trucks out of operation and putting the fire trucks back in their place.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
