Off-duty firefighter goes to aid of women trapped in car

Joe Dowling

Firefighter Joe Dowling proved that GMFRS' people are never really off-duty when he spotted a collision as he drove to work this week and immediately went to the aid of two young women trapped in a car.

The White Watch crew member from Gorton was on his way to work at Altrincham Fire Station when he came across a collision as he headed up Stockport Road, Levenshulme, at 9am on Tuesday, May 1.

Joe noticed no one from the emergency services was at the scene yet so pulled in and went over to help.

He said: "I was in heavy traffic so didn’t see it until I was driving past but saw that there was no one there to help so my brain started ticking.

"I pulled in as soon as I could and spoke to a woman at the scene and checked that someone had called 999, which I was told they had.

"I made a quick assessment about how many casualties were involved, secured the car by putting the handbrake on and started talking to the girls stuck in the car while assessing their injuries.

"I was feeling uneasy about how many minutes had passed without anyone else arriving at the scene."

Joe dialled 999 himself and discovered he was in fact the first person to call.

Thanks to his firefighter training, he was able to pass comprehensive details on to the ambulance service about the women's conditions so they would know what they were responding to.

The 27-year-old driver had suffered possible spinal and hip injuries and the 21-year-old passenger had suffered possible spinal injuries – from talking to the women and looking at the impact, he was most concerned about the passenger.

Joe got into the car and stabilised the passenger just as he would with the rest of the crew working together at the scene of the incident.

"The crew from Whitehill Fire Station got a bit of a shock when they arrived and saw me there," added Joe. "It had been a daunting situation for me until they arrived and seemed like the longest few minutes of my life – I’m used to turning up to something like that with a team.

"Normally, you get there with a crew so you face it together and you're wearing full protective gear but I had no one around and I was just in my regular uniform.

"I felt the pressure but I just made the best I could of a bad situation."

As well as a crew from Whitehill, a crew from Joe’s regular station of Gorton went out to the scene.

They were on the scene for more than an hour cutting the women carefully from the car.

Station Manager Chris Mycock said: "It was protracted because the injured women were stable so the crews made as much space as possible for the ambulance service without disturbing their injuries any more than absolutely necessary."