LANCASTER – First responders were kept busy Sunday afternoon at the Antelope Valley Fair.
“We had a lot of heat emergencies, mainly small children and the elderly,” said Aaron Aumann, General Manager of Antelope Valley Ambulance Service, a private ambulance service that contracts with the Fair every year.
“Today because of the weather and because it’s the last day of the Fair, a lot more people came out earlier than normal. They didn’t wait for the sun to come down; they came out to get in their last minute fun.”
Fair gates opened 2 p.m. for the last day of the Antelope Valley Fair. By 4 p.m.,hundreds of Fair goers had streamed into the Fair Grounds, braving the three-digit temperatures.
By 5 p.m., temperatures topped out at 110 degrees, and by this time, EMTs had already responded to a dozen different heat emergencies. Using special response vehicles, EMTs rushed victims back to a medical mobile unit.
“We get them out of the elements, get them away from all the other people and try to get them back here in a controlled environment,” said Aumann. “We give them fluids slowly and cool them off with cold rags and ice packs to certain parts of the body.”
Aumann says, aside from Sunday’s emergencies, things were pretty average overall for the medical response team.
“It was a pretty mellow Fair for us as far as problems,” said Aumann. “We had about 25-30 heat emergencies overall, and most of them were today.”
All heat exhaustion victims were treated on site at the Fair Grounds. No further care was needed.
James Stouvenel says
the Emergency teams there, are heroes, Thank God they were out there, think of the elderly that could have gotten sick, my hat is off to them, great job guys. :)