Shippensburg Auto Accident and Collapse Part 2...

Today is the second and final installment of Friday's auto accident and structure collapse in downtown Shippensburg. I want to point out that this post in not meant to glorify the incident that occurred but to report what happened and show the public what the volunteer and paid fire services do in there line of work. The incident lasted for what most is a regular work day but for the men and women that operated at this call there was no compensation except for the fact that they helped there fellow man and a scene of community involvement. When I left you yesterday firefighters were preparing the structure for a lift that would allow them to remove the jeep safely. In this photograph special operations members put the finishing touches on there cribbing in preparation to install the air bags.

The cribbing is ready for the air bags at this point but members retreated to determine if the structure is still stable and safe to work in before continuing.

One set of air bags are placed on the cribbing while the other set lays ready to place on top in order to give them the amount of life needed to raise the structure enough to remove the auto.

This photos illustrates the two sets of air bags in place before the lift. Above the air bags is a steel I beam that will provide the area support in lifting it enough so a roll back can be used to pull the auto free of the building. Once the firefighters are ready, team member George Lazorchic (pictured on the right) will coordinate the inflation of the air bags side to side to safely lift the load evenly.

If you look to the center of the photograph you will see the air bags are inflated. The lift was sufficient to remove the auto from the structure allowing the victims to be removed and the fire department to begin demobilizing.

With the air bags inflated the auto is slowly pulled from the structure.

This is the remains of the jeep that two people died in as a result of the accident. The auto was crushed by a limestone wall approximately 18 inches thick that came crashing down on it when the supporting column was taken out by the front of the jeep.

Pictured above is J. Danial Byers, Danny is the retired fire chief of the Letterkenny Army Depot fire department and past chief and current president of the Vigilant Hose Company in Shippensburg. Danny is one of those guys that gave me the skills as a junior member to be a fireman today.

The accident claimed the lives of the two individuals in the jeep, the person in the other vehicle was injured and transported to a local hospital and two people in the building escaped without injury. The building had to to be torn down do the the damage it received when it collapsed. The three Shippensburg Fire Companies, Vigilant Hose, Cumberland Valley Hose and the West End Fire and Rescue operated at the scene into the evening. They were assisted by the Shippensburg EMS, Franklin's of Chambersburg and the Cumberland County Rescue Team consisting of the Rescue and Citizens of Mechanicsburg, Hampden Twp., Carlisle and Citizens of Enola., I am sorry if I missed anyone. There were other agencies involved that included transfer fire companies, the county coroners office, Shippensburg Police, engineers, the towing company and others.

Please visit Shane's blog for a new psot today.