90 Minutes

This past weekend the Patton Volunteer Fire Company held it's first jubilee in 9 years. Altogether I'm using 19 photographs that I shot in 90 minutes on Friday while shooting for Mainline Newspapers and my blog.

I shot my first picture of the afternoon at 5:39. The streets were just starting to fill up with classic hot-rods and farm tractors that were to be part of the fire company's cruise-in night during the jubilee.

At 5:46 this nicely turned out 1948 Plymouth Deluxe came up the street looking for it's parking spot.

Sparky the Fire Dog and Smoky the Bear posed with some of the area kids at 6:04.

Jim Link backed his 1954 John Deere Model 10 up against the curb around 6:04.

Sparky the Fire Dog took a ride on this little Farmall A Model at 6:15.

Even though the volunteers were looking forward to a relaxing weekend, they still had to make plans to have stand-by crews available to assure that service would be provided to the community. At some time around 6:20 or 6:25, the Patton fire whistle went off and the assigned response team sprang into action leaving the others behind to continue to get everything setup for the weekend in front of the company's station house.

6:37 -- They were responding to this motorcycle accident along McGee Road, East Carroll Township.

6:37 -- After getting off the fire rescue unit, these two firefighters responded immediately to the victim of the accident to assess the situation and provide comfort and first aid.

6:37 -- Patton Borough police officers responded directly to the accident and secured the scene before the arrival of the Pennsylvania State Police.

6:38 -- Luckily, the Patton Fire Department has a trained EMS individual, who is also a firefighter, who is able to give medical care to a victim prior to the arrival of the ambulance and the EMTs.

6:41 -- Once the EMS personnel were on hand, and had further stabilized the patient, they prepared him to be loaded into the ambulance.


6:42 -- While the EMT personnel were at work, a Patton policeman checked through the motorcycle operator's gear in search of anything that would help identify the rider.


6:48 -- Once the patient was loaded into the ambulance, he was transported a few hundred feet up the road where the crew awaited the arrival of the STAT MedEvac helicopter.

6:56 -- The pilot make several passes over the landing site to check for wires and trees.

6:58 -- Once he was satisfied with the landing zone, the pilot prepared to put the chopper on the ground.

6:59 -- Once on the ground, the helicopter's medical team unloaded their own gurney and headed across the yard to the waiting ambulance for the patient transfer.

7:05 -- After securing the patient for transport to the MedEvac unit, the medical nurse loaded his gear back onto the helicopter.

7:08 -- The second medical team member, with the help of the firemen and EMS crew, moved the accident victim to the rear of the helicopter.

7:09 -- After everything was checked out and secured, the medical team loaded back into the helicopter and ...


it's off to the trauma center at Altoona Regional Medical Center at 7:10.