The La Broquerie fire chief said he rescued a man trapped under a mobile home on Thursday afternoon.
Al Nadeau said he received a 911 call around 2pm. The phone came down as a person trapped under a mobile home in the Marchand area.
“We knew right away that we had to act swiftly on it,” recalls Nadeau.
The incident occurred just north of Marchand, and Nadeau says the scene looked exactly as the 911 dispatcher described it when they arrived.
“We got to the scene and[the trailer was]on people,” he explains. “It felt like my leg and hand were pinched.”
Nadeau said the person was in the process of leveling the house with the help of his brother. He was shaken, but still breathing and conscious. The crew quickly grabbed the rescue tools, lifted the house and pulled him out. Nadeau said the man had injuries to his hands and feet, but the other man was not injured.
“It was nice that he stayed inches away from the iron beam,” Nadeau explains. “It was just a wooden structure that was crushing him now. It wasn’t as sharp or as strong as those steel beams.”
Nadeau says that if it had been a steel beam that had held him in place, it would have probably cut off the man’s leg and probably killed him.
A STARS ambulance was called in first to evacuate the patient, but Nadeau said the man’s vitals were fine, so they stopped. The person was taken to a hospital in Steinbach. His family says it’s a miracle no one was injured in the incident. However, surgery is required to repair tissue damage.
Nadeau says the man was trapped under a trailer as it took at least 20 minutes for the fire department to arrive on the scene. The crew was there for about 30 minutes. He credits their speedy work to new rescue tools provided by the local government of La Broquerie several years ago.
“Those motorized spreaders lifted home trailers as if there was nothing there,” he explains.
Nadeau says this is the first time in his many years of experience in the fire department that he has dealt with individuals trapped under mobile homes.