Two people had to be removed from an SUV with the Jaws of Life on Tuesday morning. It all happened in between Brookhaven and Devonshire, right off of Montana in East El Paso. Three people had to be taken to area hospitals. The call came in around 12:20 Tuesday morning, and fire fighters quickly realized they needed a large response.
Lt. David Mayorga of the El Paso Fire Department, said, "We had a total of 11 units on the scene, approximately 20 personnel. The reason why we had so many units on the scene: we had specialized equipment. We even called a unit out from the airport to get some of their equipment out here."
Firefighters began working first on the passenger side of the vehicle. They pulled out the first passenger at 1:02 a.m. According to fire dispatch, she was rushed to Thomason Hospital code three, the highest rating.
But firefighters weren't done. They began working on the driver, who was still stuck inside. As they continued to work on bringing the second person out, firefighters attended to the one passenger not stuck in the SUV. Twenty minutes later, the driver was freed. He was also transported code three to Thomason Hospital.
Lt. David Mayorga said, "This was a very complicated rescue. That vehicle couldn't be moved until we had everything in place. We had two tow trucks that we had to stabilize the vehicle with, along with equipment we brought with our units."
The accident closed all lanes of traffic traveling eastbound on Montana for hours, and police continue to investigate just how the accident happened.
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