Delisle firefighters rescued after fire truck rolls on icy road

Two Delisle firefighters are recovering after they were rescued from a rollover on Sunday.

Around 11 a.m. on Sunday, the firefighters were in their truck and on their way to a “vehicle incident” west of Delisle when they got into an accident themselves.

“We came across a large section of highway that was completely ice-covered, and the unit that went into the ditch fishtailed in,” Mike Given, Delisle’s fire chief, said on Thursday.

“When you have a big unit with 2,500 gallons of water on it, there’s a lot of weight, so when the water sloshed to the side it took the vehicle down into the ditch and subsequently rolled up on its top – up on its lid.”

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Given said the firefighters were stuck inside the overturned truck after the crash.

“They were still on their seats, upside down,” he said.

Two firefighters had to be rescued from the rolled emergency vehicle. (Delisle Fire Department/Submitted)

Given said many fire truck cabs are made from fibreglass, which trapped the firefighters in the overturned vehicle.

“That crushed in down somewhat on top of them, so they were not able to self-extricate. They couldn’t get doors or anything open,” he said.

Given said other firefighters used a hydraulic rescue tool – commonly referred to as the jaws of life – to remove the doors. To extract the firefighter that was driving, Given said they also had to remove a section of the steering wheel.

He said the whole process took about 22 minutes.

Given said one of the two trapped firefighters sustained minor injuries, and was released from the hospital that same day.

The other firefighter had more serious injuries and stayed at the hospital overnight before being released on Monday afternoon.

Both are expected to make a full recovery.

(Delisle Fire Department/Submitted)

During the incident, the Delisle & District Fire Department received help from the Montrose Volunteer Fire Department, Saskatoon paramedics, STARS, the RCMP and the Vanscoy RM Police.

“I’m just thankful that we have such a good team of members and a great working relationship with our mutual aids in the other RMs surrounding us that came to our aid and helped us remove our two injured people, and in taking care of cleaning up the scene and keeping it safe for everybody,” Given said.

Delisle is about 45 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon.