Salem Fire/Rescue Chief Mike Slover (left) receives the Annual Scene Call of the Year Award from Flight for Life representatives Patty Mitchell and Tom Bradtke.
Salem Fire/Rescue along with a host of other area departments, was presented by Flight for Life with that organization’s 15th Annual Scene Call of the Year Award for 2008.
The award related to Salem’s coordination of the scene of a May 23, 2008 accident on Highway 50 west of Highway B in which a semi tractor trailer rear-ended a stopped Wheatland Center School bus.
A total of 18 fire departments and other emergency agencies participated in the call and Salem Chief Mike Slover said the award was for all of them.
“It was not just this department,” Slover said. “This is for all the departments that responded.”
Representatives of those departments, all in uniform, filled the seats and lined the walls of Salem Town Hall’s meeting room before Monday’s board meeting.
The award applications were evaluated by a panel of judges based on the guidelines developed by the American College of Surgeons for using air medical transport. The submissions were also examined for the following: scene safety, triage decisions, complex planning and accident scene management, integration of the helicopter into the call, and use of skills that went beyond the “call of duty” to treat the patient.
“This (call) was not normal or average,” said Tammy Chatman, a Flight for Life respresentative.
More details about the award can be found here.
Departments and agencies besides Salem Fire/Rescue credited with contributing to the call were: Kenosha County Joint Services, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, State Patrol, the county Highway Department, Racine Fire Bells and fire and rescue departments from Silver Lake, Bristol, Somers, Paris, Pleasant Prairie, Twin Lakes, Wheatland, Antioch, Newport, Spring Grove and Fox Lake along with Flight for Life from McHenry County and Waukesha/Milwaukee.
Firefighters line the walls of the Salem Town Hall meeting room before Monday's Flight for Life award ceremony.
Kudos to Town of Salem Fire and Rescue. Years ago, our family had a house fire. Wilmot VFD (before Town of Salem’s consolidation of the departments) responded within minutes of our 2:30am call. Our house sustained only minor damage. Thank you is not nearly enough to express our gratitude for these men and women who responded to our call for help…and these were all volunteers at the time. Great job then– and now!