SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA – At 7:37 AM on Tuesday, August 20, Schuylkill County 9-1-1 dispatched Fire District 4 (Fountain Springs and Lavelle), Ashland Rescue, Ashland EMS and Shenandoah ALS to 920 Fountain Street in Butler Township for a motor vehicle accident with entrapment.
First responding units were advised of a car into a house with severe structural damage. It was reported that one person was ejected from the vehicle and was lying unconscious in the home and another occupant was trapped in the vehicle. The original reports stated the homeowner was unaccounted for. The rescue assignment was quickly upgraded and heavy rescues from Mahanoy City (West End) and Pottsville (Yorkville) were dispatched.
Police arrived on the scene and confirmed a white SUV was driven into a house with severe damage. One person was found in the home and the driver still trapped in the vehicle. Rescue crews were requested to expedite and a request for an aeromedical helicopter was given to fly one of the patients to a trauma center.
Due to dense fog in the area, all aeromedical transports were grounded. The patient laying in the house, which was determined to be the homeowner, was packaged and loaded for transport to a trauma center. The driver of the vehicle was extricated from the vehicle and transport was initiated to the trauma center. EMS met with a flight crew while enroute to the hospital for special treatment of the patient.
Mahanoy City Rescue 993 and Yorkville’s Rescue 63 and 64 arrived on the scene and began to establish a plan to secure the house from collapsing. Wood beams were constructed and put into place to shore up the roof of the house and the vehicle was eventually removed from the building.
Investigators believe speed was a factor in this accident as the SUV traveled through a grassy field before striking multiple trees and going airborne to fly over the driveway and into the living room of the house.
