Wednesday was a
whipsaw sort of a day for Chesterton firefighters.
It began at 10:03
a.m., Deputy Fire Chief Nate Williams said, when the CFD was dispatched to
assist the Pine Township Volunteer FD at the scene of a garage fire in the
1600 block of Maple Street. Turns out a guy who was burning yard waste in a
barrel managed to ignite leaf litter outside the barrel, on the ground,
which in turn extended to the exterior of his neighbor’s garage.
PTVFD had the whole
thing doused and under control by the time the CFD arrived on scene--the
fire was confined to the garage’s siding, Williams said--so the engine crew
just turned around and headed back to the station, at 10:13 a.m.
That crew was still
en route to Pine Township, however, when, at 10:05 a.m., the CFD was toned
out to a semi-vs.-pickup at Ind. 49 and East Oakhill Road, where it appears
the pickup turned in front of the semi and got T-boned, Williams said.
Responding to that crash was Fire Chief John Jarka and--thanks to an
off-duty callback--Capt. Aimee Gilbert, who assisted EMS and then spread
five bags of oil dry, some 250 pounds of it, on the roadway.
Jarka and Gilbert
cleared that scene at 10:49 a.m.
The Chief and the
Captain were still at the crash on Ind. 49, though, when the engine crew,
having long since returned to the station, got sent back out again, at 11:41
a.m., this time to the 31 mile marker of eastbound I-94, where a passenger
on a Greyhound bus bound for Detroit was complaining of chest pain.
The crew cleared
that scene at 11:58 a.m.
And was promptly
dispatched to a rollover crash at the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and
Waverly Road, to assist the Porter Fire Department with an extrication,
Williams said. Also assisting: the Burns Harbor FD. Firefighters were forced
to cut the vehicle’s roof and then peel it back like the lid of a sardine
can to get at the driver, a woman and the vehicle’s only occupant.
The CFD cleared
that scene at 12:30 p.m.
Then, at 8:50 p.m.,
firefighters were dispatched to another rollover crash, this one in the
eastbound lanes of I-94, near the 29 mile marker, where one man was ejected
and another partially ejected. The latter was airlifted to hospital by
helicopter, Williams said, but the former--a large man of more than 400
pounds--exceeded the helicopter’s weight limit and was transported instead
by ambulance to Methodist Hospital Northlake Campus in Gary.
The helicopter
staged at the truck scales, Williams said, with the assistance of a crash
truck dispatched to the scene from Porter County Regional Airport.
Finally, at 6:13
a.m. today, the CFD responded to the Bob Evans restaurant at Gateway and
Ind. 49, after workers found that a malfunctioning carbon dioxide line
serving a carbonated drink dispenser had leaked all over the floor, Williams
said.
Firefighters shut
off the C02 to the line and cleared the scene at 6:37 a.m.