Photo: Courtesy of the Orange Fire Rescue EMS.
ORANGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — On Sunday, a skydiver hard landed on the roof of a warehouse in Orange Industrial Park after his main and reserve chutes malfunctioned.
According to Orange Fire Rescue Emergency Medical Services, a commercial skydiving center named Jumptown Skydiving contacted officials and said that a skydiver had an entanglement of his chutes, which caused the hard landing.
Jumptown staff told officials they had staff on the way, some of which were EMTs themselves, and the victim was conscious and alert following his touchdown on top of the building.
Fire crews extended their ladder to the top of a Seaman Paper warehouse and climbed up to attend to the patient above. It was there that crews determined the victim's injuries were non-life-threatening, but because of the mechanism of injuries and the prolonged extrication time, a medical helicopter was requested to Orange Airport.
Photo: Courtesy of Orange Fire Rescue EMS.
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Officials said Jumptown staff worked on safely removing his harness and equipment, after which first responders loaded and stabilized the patient into a stokes basket stretcher to move him down to the ground-level. Around an hour and a half after the emergency call was made, the skydiver was brought to the landing zone and lifted via UMass Memorial LifeFlight.
Orange Fire Rescue EMS thanked all parties involved including the Orange Police Department and Jumptown Skydiving staff who fire crews work with every year to learn their equipment and process.
"We don’t have emergencies at Jumptown very often, in fact they run a very safe operation, but like any extracurricular activity, there are risks," Orange Fire Rescue EMS said in a statement.
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