Wayland Fire Dept. Account of Tree Vs. Car Incident Sunday

A rotted tree feel Sunday night along Wayland's Woodridge Road. It tumbled through multiple power lines, cutting power to about 700 Wayland residents and businesses, before .

Wayland firefighters rescued the woman, a Wayland resident in her late 50s, and transported her to Beth Israel Medical Center for evaluation and possible smoke inhalation.

Below is Fire Chief Vincent Smith's press release regarding the incident.

Last evening while crews were returning from a previous call, the power to the area of Fire Station #2 went out. At 7:57, on-duty crews were notified of a motor vehicle accident with entrapment on Woodridge Road. While en route crews were further updated that there was a large tree and wires on the vehicle, a person was trapped in the car, and the vehicle was now on fire.

On arrival, Deputy Chief David Houghton; the ambulance crew Kyle McLaughlin and Dan Spurling; and a fire engine crew, Ken McGuire and Ron Rokes found all the reports to be true. The power company was contacted for an emergency shut off of the power in the area. After a quick assessment of the wires that were down, a dry chemical extinguisher was used to put several small fires out in the front seat area of the vehicle. In addition to the extinguisher, a hose line was advanced to put the fire out and cool the interior of the vehicle. The occupant was speaking to the rescuers during this process.

Once the fire was extinguished crews went to work to extricate the occupant. A firefighter remained at the driver’s door and continued to speak to the occupant and keep her calm while access to the interior of the car was obtained. Lighting was also set up. The tree was too large to move (3-feet or more in diameter at the base) and had crushed the roof of the vehicle 12-18 inches. The fire crews worked to open the rear doors and to move the backs of both the drivers and passenger seats out so the occupant could be moved out on a back board. The occupant was removed with full C-spine precautions (cervical collar and a long back board) and moved to the ambulance.

The patient, a 57-year-old Wayland resident was transported to Beth Israel for evaluation at the Advanced Life Support level with the assistance of an AMR paramedic intercept unit working in conjunction with a Wayland Paramedic. No significant injuries were apparent at the scene, but the patient was taken to Boston to address the possibility of smoke inhalation.

After it was clear that all hazards had been addressed all fire personnel and apparatus cleared the scene and returned to quarters.

Later, in a related incident, a nearby resident was alerted when their carbon monoxide alarm activated. The alarm was apparently caused when a generator running during the associated power failure was not venting completely from the house. The area was ventilated and the resident did not need to be transported to the hospital.