By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CLAREMONT, N.H. — The Claremont Fire Department was busy on Friday and Saturday with a number of calls, notably a pair of mountain bike falls and a vehicle that was on fire but quickly extinguished.
According to Lt. Scott Messer, on Friday at the fire department responded to Arrowhead Park at 2:08 p.m. for an adult male from Lebanon with a neck injury stemming from a fall while riding his mountain back on a trail. The utility vehicle and Engine 4 responded about five minutes later.
“We loaded up some equipment and ourselves,” Messer said. “We had two Claremont Fire personnel and two from Golden Cross (Ambulance) and made our way up the mountain to the patient. The patient had some neck pain and some tingling to the right side extremities, so we took cervical spine precautions, backboarded him, and up onto the utility vehicle.”
The patient was taken down to the base of Arrowhead Park, loaded into an ambulance, and taken to Valley Regional Hospital. Messer said he was “talking, conscious and alert the whole time.”
“I believe he said he washed out on some roots and hit a stump,” Messer said. “He landed headfirst so he had some pine needles wedged into his helmet. It was probably 15 to 20 minutes to get him down into the ambulance.”
Messer could not confirm if there were any broken bones or the extent of the injuries, saying that when it comes to the neck there needs to be additional tests. Landing headfirst, especially with downhill mountain biking at significant speed, they take extra precautions. However, Messer said he spoke to an employee of Golden Cross on Monday who said the patient walked out of the hospital, was sore, but had no broken bones or vertebrae.
Messer was happy with the cooperation between multiple departments to tend to the patient.
“It was a team effort,” Messer said. “Claremont Police responded with their ATV, as well. So there were three CPD, two fire and two Golden Cross. We all helped out where we could. It’s always a team effort especially out in the woods like that.”
On Saturday morning at 10:33 a.m., the Claremont Fire Department responded to a “fully involved vehicle fire” in the Harbor Freight parking lot.
Engine 4, with two personnel, responded quickly and was on the scene by 10:36 a.m., and had the fire under control by 10:39 a.m. Messer did not have a cause of the fire, but said despite it being put out quickly, it was a fairly heavy fire.
“I was down at Monadnock Park and could see a column of smoke from the soccer field, so it was a good one, Messer said.
On Saturday, just before 3 p.m. the Claremont Fire Department was toned out to Arrowhead Park again with the same utility vehicle. This time was for a rider on in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference race who was fairly deep into the trail.
The department was on scene at 2:56 p.m. and under control about 30 minutes later. Messer did not have details on the extent or nature of the injury.
