Medevac helipad built in Middle Granville

You are currently viewing Medevac helipad built in Middle Granville
A dry run of the new helipad last Saturday included Penrhyn Engine and Hose Company first assistant chief Ethan Barnes assisting ‘patient’ Christine Cook of the Granville Rescue Squad. (Photo courtesy of Kody Brown)

You are a first responder and your patient is expiring because of a life-threatening injury, and time is of the essence.

From the Granville area, transport by ambulance to one of the nearest regional hospitals (Glens Falls, Rutland or Saratoga) is 30 minutes at best, often longer given traffic, weather or road conditions.

To make matters worse, your patient’s best chance for survival is to be transported to a level-one trauma center. Around here that is either the Albany Medical Center Hospital or the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. That means well more than an hour in the back of an ambulance. So what now?

Look for help from above. Specifically, a medevac helicopter.

This medical airlift service began in the greater Capital Region about 20 years ago. It is now offered around upstate New York by a company called LifeNet with three helicopters stationed strategically for optimal coverage.

For Granville and environs, LifeNet 7-13 stationed in Ticonderoga is the first chopper on call with back-up equipment in the Town of Glen (near Amsterdam) and southern Albany County.

The fact that a medevac helicopter might be available (depending on weather conditions) doesn’t necessarily solve the problem however.

Once overhead, where does it land? It needs a clearing free of overhead wires and nearby structures, and the landing surface cannot not be gravel or stone lest a firestorm of flying shrapnel be generated. The surface must be concrete, asphalt or grass.

It must also be in proximity to a roadway so that a patient can be transported by stretcher from an ambulance to the aircraft. LifeNet has been using the Mary J. Tanner Elementary School, but its fields are not kept clear of snow or other debris in the winter, thus ruling out its use during cold weather.

In Granville, the need for a medevac helicopter is not all that common, but according to Jim Bradt of Middle Granville’s Penrhyn Engine and Hose Company, that need seems to be increasing.

So about a year ago, he and several other members of the department formed a committee to construct a helipad adjacent to their fire house. The site was excavated, leveled and planted with grass. Since this area was once used for fire department carnivals, there were some remaining vendor buildings, far enough away not to be a safety concern, but close enough to offer shelter for an ambulance and fire equipment, particularly after the department covered them with metal siding.

The volunteers also placed landing lights on all four corners with the wiring for such buried underground. A windsock was also erected.


Demonstration instructor Andrew Cawres (in plaid) with pilot Gabriel Sheeran (center) and North Granville fire chief Scott McCullen looking on. (Photo courtesy of Kody Brown)

The landing pad will be maintained by members of the Penrhyn Engine and Hose Company and will be available at all times. The funding for the site was provided by the Middle Granville firefighters with construction help from several community volunteers.

The Middle Granville landing site committee, consisting of Jim Bradt, Craig Lennox, Jim and Nick Crouch, Ethan Barnes, Antonio Landon, Brandon Heath, Dean Moore and Kody Brown, on Saturday morning, Sept. 24, had the opportunity to showcase their hard work by a visit from LifeNet helicopter. The volunteers and the LifeNet crew conducted a dry run of an airlift complete with a practice patient. The day featured great participation from area fire departments and Granville Rescue Squad.