Multiple units from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad responded June 22 to a Metro train collision that, according to media reports, took nine lives and injured approximately 70 people.
Medics 741, 741D, and 741E; and Ambulances 741B and 741C responded to the scene with many other units from D.C., Montgomery County, and other jurisdictions (including Montgomery County’s 20-patient Ambulance Bus, staffed partly with a B-CC Rescue Squad crew).
In addition, Rescue Squad 741 (one of the B-CC Rescue Squad’s heavy rescue units) was transferred to D.C. Engine 24, to backfill for D.C. units that were committed to the train incident and other calls. Additional B-CC Rescue Squad volunteers staffed EMS units and Rescue Squad 741B, the Squad’s second heavy rescue unit, at the Squad’s Headquarters to respond to calls in the Squad’s service area.
According to media reports, one Metro commuter train collided with another train heading in the same direction on Metro’s Red line, on a section of above-ground track between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations in Northeast Washington during the evening rush hour.
Media reports stated that approximately 70 passengers were transported to various D.C. hospitals, as fire/rescue crews remained on the scene for hours searching for additional patients in the wreckage.
After clearing the Metro train incident, two of the B-CC transport units (Medic 741 and Ambulance 741C) were transferred to D.C. fire stations and remained there into the evening to respond to calls as needed.
To long-time Squad members, the incident evoked memories of the Rescue Squad’s response to a Metro train derailment that took three lives on January 13, 1982. On that day, multiple units from the B-CC Rescue Squad were initially dispatched during a raging snow storm to the crash of an Air Florida passenger plane into the 14th Street Bridge. The units were later re-routed to the Metro train derailment in downtown Washington.
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