Rescue in Blackwood

Local firefighters have been thanked for their quick and caring service, after rescuing two occupants of a crashed vehicle on the weekend.

At 10.50am on Saturday, the Blackwood and Trentham Fire Brigades were paged to a car accident on the Greendale-Trentham Road, 200 metres north of Pottery Track. The location was estimated using the mobile phone coordinates from one of the accident victims. Conditions were poor with fog and light rain.

When arriving on scene, fire crews, Blackwood CERT and police found a vehicle on its side with two occupants, about 30 metres from the road down a steep incline. Specialist high angle rescue crews from Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) were also paged from Ballarat. Along with Trentham appliances, Ballan Rescue and Paramedics were also quickly on scene.

The FRV crew organised a rope pulley system to facilitate three crew to bring up one patient on a stretcher while 5 crew hauled on the rope. The other patient was able to walk up from the site via a more gentle path.

Blackwood were again paged at 2.50pm Saturday afternoon to wash away diesel spilt during the vehicle recovery.

Blackwood Fire Brigade thanked all of those who assisted them via a social media post on Saturday night, in particular Blackwood CERT who were quickly on scene, and Trentham and Ballan Brigades, plus Trentham CERT, police, and FRV.

One of the patients also thanked emergency services on the Blackwood CFA page, stating that they had made her and her daughter “feel at ease in a terrifying situation.”

“We are both unhurt, miraculously. Thank you and bless you all.” the patient said.