NORWAY — The Fire Department’s new,six-wheel “remote access machine” has already been used in a llama rescue, a forest fire and most recently rescuing a man who fell from a tower on Streaked Mountain.
“If we didn’t have the six-wheeler, we’d have to use the pickup truck and probably wouldn’t have gotten these calls,” Fire Chief Dennis Yates said.
The department got the $30,000 machine this summer. Called a RAM, which stands for remote access machine, the six-wheel vehicle holds 90 gallons of water, 20 gallons of foam, a rescue stretcher and a winch, and can get to remote places to assist in an emergency.
The RAM was called into duty early Saturday morning when a man — part of a group of eight or nine people — climbed a tower and fell 20 feet to the ground.
“They called us to bring the machine over,” Yates said. Driving up a washed-out maintenance road, they found the man after some difficulty and were able to take him down for transport to a hospital.
The first use of the RAM was an unusual rescue of a llama that had passed out in the heat in a Norway pond, Yates said. Although the large animal was rescued using a sling and several men pulling it, Yates said the RAM’s basket and winch could have been used to pull the animal out of the water. Although it wasn’t needed, the vehicle carried a bail of hay to prop up the animal’s head while the rescue was undertaken.
The RAM was also called to a July 28 forest fire in Otisfield to carry personnel and equipment into a remote area. The fire was caused by a smoldering campfire.
“It’s a pretty valuable tool,” he said.
Firefighter Tim Yates said the machine was paid for through the department’s budget over three years.
With 20 miles of gravel and dirt roads, including some unimproved roads such as Round the Pond Road, and the opening of Roberts Preserve on Pikes Hill with its miles of hiking trails, department officials said there was a great need for the machine just in Norway.
“It’s a multifunctional vehicle,” Tim Yates said.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- Fire Chief Dennis Yates, left, firefighter Tim Yates and Assistant Chief Jim Tibbetts, seated, display the Norway Fire Department’s new remote access machine which has been used for two rescues and a forest fire this summer.
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- The Norway Fire Department’s new remote access machine features a stretcher and water-pumping capability.
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