The crash of a private helicopter in a remote corner of Jefferson County on the afternoon of Sept. 15 drew a crowd of first responders.
Crews from two fire departments arrived at the scene, along with two ambulance companies, Elkhorn Search and Rescue, the Jefferson County Sheriff and the U.S. Forest Service. For many, the rescue was a new experience, since few local volunteer fire departments train for aviation incidents.
Steve Carey, assistant chief with Boulder/Bull Mountain Fire Department, was one of the responders who made the trek into the backcountry when the report of the crash was paged out by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Carey did have experience in aviation crashes and rescues, having been part of the 2018 Monument-Wigwam Fires by Ennis. Boulder/Bull Mountain Fire Captain Leon Shupp also encountered aviation incidents in his past firefighting work in Colorado. Carey and Shupp had that advantage over most other responders.
Simply getting to the incident scene was a challenge. “Many of us knew that the area was remote and that we needed rescue equipment and 4×4 vehicles,” Carey said. “There was concern on being able to find the crash and if we would be able to get equipment, vehicles and crews to the crash.”
“I ended up borrowing a firefighter’s dad’s side by side, which was in Basin, and taking it up there.” Carey recalled.
Other responding agencies, initially coordinated by the Sheriff’s Office, also had to improvise transportation. “[Sheriff Tom Grimsrud] and his deputies got right there,” Carey said. “Boulder Ambulance with [its] new 4×4 was able to get almost to the site, Boulder/Bull Mountain and Basin got brush trucks up there, the Forest Service law enforcement led up St. Peter’s Ambulance, and Elkhorn Search and Rescue came with a large crew and many off-road vehicles.”
Once on scene, cooperation between the multiple agencies was essential. “We are very lucky to live in a tight knit community,” Carey said. “We sometimes get to train alongside other agencies and get to know the other people that might respond with us.”
The incident occurred on land managed by the Forest Service, which had jurisdiction for the scene. Forest Service officials managed the various incoming rescue teams, including LifeFlight helicopters arriving from the air to transport the three crash victims – all of whom survived. Carey said the terrain where the crash occurred was heavily forested, but with some open meadows that enabled rescue helicopters to land safely.
Carey said his team’s after-action review generated ideas for how to make future, similar incidents even more manageable.
“Boulder/Bull Mountain is going to be training with LifeFlight and MedFlight in the near future to get its members trained on landing zone operations,” he said. “Each air ambulance company has different helicopters and the loading of patients into the helicopters is from a different angle.” He and the Boulder/Bull Mountain department have also begun applying for grants and funding for more fire/rescue offh-ighway vehicles (OHV) and battery operated rescue tools. Carey recognizes a need to be able to get rescue teams into remote, backcountry areas.
“While an aircraft has been a rare incident for us, remote rescues are becoming more common with the popularity of OHVs and trail systems pushing further into public lands.”
In the meantime, county responders have much to be proud of from this recent incident, especially their cooperation with other state and federal agencies. “We have strong relationships with those agencies and greatly value the partnerships we have with each of them,” said Doug Dodge, the county’s Department of Emergency Services coordinator. “It takes all of us working together to get the best outcome we can.”
