The Crossville Fire Dept. in Crossville, TN responded to a MVA at 3:34 on Thursday Oct, 5th, with initial dispatch information of a car striking a house. The first arriving unit, off duty firefighter Kevin Edwards reported that the vehicle was completely under the house.
The initial size-up found two occupants still inside the vehicle, entrapped heavily. Deputy Chief Chris South arrived on scene establishing command of the scene and requested a response from the local power and gas utilities, since the vehicle had struck the structure where both entered the building. Deputy Chief South directed simultaneous operations of patient extrication, and structural stabilization, (It was deemed that structure stable for the removal of the passenger) after the passenger had been extricated and the structure shored up with rescue struts, the driver was removed from the vehicle. Both occupants were freed by removing the doors of the vehicle. The structure had a basement instead of a crawl space that allowed ample room for all operations to take place.
The passenger was removed at 3:50 and the driver was freed at 4:00 and the scene was deemed under control at that time. Units remained on scene for several hours for the removal of the vehicle from the structure. The structure received moderate damage and will be uninhabitable till repairs can be made.
Crossville and Cumberland Co. FD's are both combination departments and utilize a joint technical rescue team. Photos were taken by Cumberland County Fire Dept. Training Officer Terry L. Potter that had responded due to the nature of the call. Firefighter Edwards and Captain Potter are both USAR structural collapse technicians.
