The Valley Regional Fire Authority responded to 167 calls for service between Dec. 2 and Dec. 7, among them the following:
DEC. 2
Oil Spill: 8:02 a.m., (Auburn). VRFA firefighters helped clean up an oil spill from a two-car crash in the Lakeland Hills area. Despite heavy damage to both cars, none of the occupants sustained any injuries that required treatment.
DEC. 3
Car crash: 4 p.m., (Auburn). VRFA personnel responded to a two-car, head-on collision at the intersection of West Valley Highway and 37th Street. Before they arrived, one of the cars had caught fire, so a bystander gave an Auburn police officer an extinguisher with which he put out the fire. The female driver of one of the vehicles sustained minor injuries and personnel treated her at the scene and transported her to Auburn Regional Medical Center for further treatment.
DEC. 4
Choking child (Pacific): VRFA personnel responded to Alpac Elementary to help a 9-year-old boy who had choked on a hamburger. The school nurse performed the “Heimlich” maneuver and cleared the child’s airway. Firefighters found the boy in the school nurse’s office, breathing normally with no obvious airway obstructions. However, he continued to complain of food lodged in his throat. The boy was transported in stable condition to Auburn Regional Medical Center for further medical evaluation.
DEC. 5
Cookies set off fire alarm: 10:58 a.m., (Lea Hill). A local middle school class was making cookies in the cafeteria and set off a smoke alarm. A crew from Station 34 responded and reset the alarm. The cookies were doing fine.
Motor vehicle collision: 9:59 p.m. (Auburn). Multiple VRFA units and King County Medic One responded to a serious two-car, T-bone-style accident on Lea Hill Road. Auburn Police units arrived first and found one critically-injured woman unconscious in one of the vehicles. Firefighters quickly extricated the woman from the backseat, treated her and Medic One paramedics transported her to Harborview Medical Center by helicopter. Four other people involved in the accident were not injured. Lea Hill Road was closed for several hours pending completion of the investigation by Auburn Police.
DEC. 7
Unconscious man: 1:30 a.m., (Auburn). VRFA Firefighters and King County Medic 6 responded to a report of an unconscious man in the parking lot of the Longhorn Barbecue Restaurant on C Street Southwest. VRFA personnel found a heavy set, middle-aged man in a limousine, unconscious, with citizen CPR already under way. Firefighters tried to resuscitate the man, but after an extensive effort he was declared dead.
Knife wound: 2:30 p.m., (Auburn). VRFA personnel responded to a self-inflicted knife wound and found a distraught woman with a non-life threatening cut to her throat. Medics calmed the woman and treated her wounds before transporting her to Auburn Regional Medical Center.
Car crash: 12:55 p.m., (Auburn). VRFA personnel responded to a two-car crash on eastbound 15th Street Southwest near the State Route 167 onramp. The on-duty battalion chief, who was in the area, arrived first and found a man in his late 50s who had apparently suffered a heart attack while driving his vehicle. The battalion chief removed the man from the vehicle, enlisted help from citizen bystanders to start CPR and quickly applied a cardiac shock with his cardiac defibrillator. Additional VRFA personnel arrived with Medic One to continue stabilization of the man, and Medic One quickly transported him to ARMC.
