Related: Lake Erie Terrace Collapse Probed

LON SLEPICKA and HEATHER CASEY
Firehouse.Com News

Troy Matevia was at the police and rescue substation on Middle Bass Island in Lake Erie when his pager went off. He was to respond to the winery where a collapse on the terrace had caused some injuries. Familiar with the site, Matevia thought the wooden railing around the terrace may have given away and someone had fallen.

AP Photo/Daniel Miller Emergency personnel transport an injured tourist from a medical staging area set up at the Miller Ferry docks.

Matevia was the full-time paramedic who, with an ambulance moved from the home island, Put-in-Bay, to the substation for weekend duty. He was alone. Of the two volunteers who usually work with him, one had gone work and the other was boarding a ferry to leave the island.

Moments later the second page told him to hurry. When he rolled up the first thing he saw was a police officer handing out latex gloves. There were 8-10 injured people lying on the ground.

Through double doors, he walked into a scene of total confusion. Light poured through a 10 by 30-foot hole above him onto a scene of broken concrete and collapsed steel beams. "I had never experienced anything of this magnitude before," Matevia said.

People who had minutes before been enjoying a pleasant afternoon outing were now lifting chunks of concrete off injured friends and strangers. Matevia quickly assessed a severely injured man and with the help of others lifting beams, extricated him.

A second severely injured man was dug out of the rubble and by then the first "Life Flight" medical evacuation helicopter had arrived. An onboard doctor immediately set up a triage center.

Keith Kahler was at a wedding reception when a local fire chief told him of the collapse of the winery terrace at Middle Bass Island on Lake Erie. Within 25 minutes he and his wife Tammy were at the chaotic scene.

"Injuries, everything you can imagine, chest, head, lots of broken bones, compound fractures," Kahler said. Sorting it all out was an incredible task. Kahler is the EMS Manager for "Life Flight" for the nine-island sector located at Put-in-Bay. Tammy Kahler, a Put-in-Bay Fire and Rescue EMT and emergency dispatcher said it was like a war zone, "with choppers lifting off and dozens of injured people on backboards."

She praised the help that came forth. "It's amazing how EMS people come out of the walls," she said, referring to the many rescue workers as tourists, who offered their assistance. "At one point I was with a vacationing nurse whose husband dropped her off by boat, to help on the island. The outpouring of help was unbelievable," Keith Kahler said

Perhaps most of all, it was the number of people that showed up to help that astounds Matevia. "We had rescue workers from three different counties on the scene. At one time I counted six physicians coming from out of the blue, working with me on the scene," he said.

"People ripped doors from their houses to use as backboards for the injured. Island residents came in pickups to transport the injured to the docks. You can't thank them enough, the people that just showed up," Matevia said.

AP Photo/Daniel Miller Emergency personnel scramble to prepare medical supplies at a medical staging area set up at the Miller Ferry docks.

Ten minutes after receiving the call, Put-in-Bay Volunteer Fire Department had firefighters on the scene doing a victim search of the area. According to Chief Mark Wilhelm, they also started coordinating the mainland effort which ballooned to help from 23 departments in northwest Ohio.

Two private boat companies turned over the use of four craft to the department, two vehicle transport ferries from Miller Boat Line and two fast passenger carriers from Jet Express. With these Wilhelm said they moved rescue units and equipment trucks to the scene, and victims to the mainland.

"It was amazing how well it worked. We train occasionally for maybe 25 to 30 injuries, but never like this. Wilhelm said. The Put-in-Bay department has 22 volunteers and operates three pumpers, one aerial truck and a water tanker.

"Life Flight", the Emergency Aeromedical Service run by St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center provides ambulance and helicopter service to the nine Lake Erie islands included in the 135 mile radius of Toledo, Ohio. Middle Bass Island, on which the Lonz Winery is located, is a 40-minute boat ride from the Ohio mainland.

Julie Goins, a nurse with "Life Flight", said there were about 45 "walking wounded" when she arrived after the accident and about 25 people in serious or critical condition. The concrete terrace collapsed and scores of people visiting the winery plunged 15-20 feet.

The most common injuries at the scene were fractured ribs and broken bones, Goins said. There were also a number of spinal fractures, but no one was paralyzed. "We're really lucky," Goins said.

Other injuries included collapsed lungs, a crushed kidney and a cardiac arrest. One person sustained head injuries and died, Goins said.

On the island, five to six helicopters at a time were being loaded with patients and returning with extra supplies and medical personnel. "We ended up with 20 backboards too many in the end," Goins said.

"We had our own little control tower," Keith Kahler said of the helicopters moving the critically injured to area trauma centers. The rest of the injured were placed on passenger ferries, which normally carry summer visitors between islands.

"They (the ferry services) dropped everything and gave their all to getting the injured to the mainland," Tammy Kahler said. Nine helicopters transported 23 injured. Over 20 ambulances were used to transport the injured to area hospitals. Ambulances gathered at the Catawba State Park to transport 70-75 injured to local hospitals.

Rescuers first heard of Saturday's disaster after a Put-in-Bay police officer called the island's dispatch center at 4:45 p.m. Put-in-Bay dispatcher Jeff Vandepool took the call. By the time all of the victims had been transported off the island, it was almost 8 p.m.

"It [the rescue] went very smooth," Goins said. "You never expect an emergency on an island on the fourth of July [weekend]."

Looking back, Matevia said there wasn't anything that should have been done differently. "With the resources we have and the location of all this, we did all right," he said.

Eight of the most seriously injured were brought to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, where four people were in serious condition and four were in fair as of Monday afternoon, said a hospital spokeswoman.