Improving Gator 6
In the early 2010s, Stony Point Volunteer Fire Company was called to a series of incidents where patients were located in difficult to access areas, like trails and woods. Responders would walk to the scene of the incident and the patient would be placed in a basket to be carried out. Depending on the type of terrain, weight of the patient, and distance to an ambulance, it would take four to eight rescuers to carry patients out and sometimes hours to complete.
Members of the Stony Point Volunteer Fire Company looked to find a better way of both accessing and extricating these victims. Many farmers in the area utilize utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) for tasks like moving feed and hay. Members saw this as the perfect sized vehicle to meet our needs.
In 2014, SPVFC purchased a John Deer 6x4 Gator UTV and, Life Member Tom Lance, donated a covered trailer for transportation of the unit. Members outfitted the unit with basic warning lights and an in-bed skid to safely transport responders and victims to and from the scene. The unit was named ‘Gator 6' and placed in service that year. Upgrades to the trailer were made soon after, including station logos and a lighting package for night operations.
Gator 6 was available to respond all over Albemarle county to assist neighboring agencies that faced the same issues with remote access incidents. UTV units are now in service at fire stations 2, 5, and 6 (ERVFC, CVFD, SPVFC), rescue stations 1 and 5 (CARS and WARS), as well as Charlottesville Fire Department.
With the expansion of the Preddy Creek Trail Park in late 2018, the park offered increasingly difficult trails featuring water crossings, low lands and rocky landscapes. We found it more difficult for our unit to traverse these conditions under the heavy load of patients, rescuers and equipment.
In 2019, SPVFC volunteers purchased a Enforcer 10, a portable, 10 gallon extinguisher. This piece of equipment opened up the use of the unit on brush and wildland fires. This increased our ability to effectively control and extinguish fires where our engines and brush truck couldn’t access.
This year, 2022, the brigade expressed a need for a more capable unit. They wanted a unit that could operate effectively in these increasingly difficult trail conditions, carry more members to the scene, a better extinguishing tool for prolonged operations, and a higher payload bed. SPVFC leadership formed a committee composed of members of different experience and background to investigate a new unit. After much discussion of possible solutions, the committee came to the conclusion that the John Deere XUV825M S4 would best fit the needs of the department and community. The unit was purchased and we are eagerly awaiting the delivery in January of 2023.
