Jul. 7—STAMFORD — For Stamford firefighters, Tuesday was an uncommon day.
That's because in the span of five hours, Fire Department personnel responded to two different situations of a person being stuck under a massive vehicle.
First, a 28-year-old woman was pinned under a city bus in the heart of Stamford's downtown in the afternoon. Later, a woman in her 60s was trapped under a train platform at Springdale Train Station after falling while getting off a train.
"People getting stuck under vehicles doesn't happen every day," said Deputy Fire Chief Tom Gloersen.
In both cases, neither woman suffered serious injuries, according to authorities.
Nicholas DeAngelo, an acting lieutenant for the Stamford Fire Department, was one of multiple Stamford firefighters who responded to both incidents.
While he said he wasn't too involved in the train rescue, which firefighters had under control very quickly, DeAngelo was one of a crew of firefighters who helped physically free a woman who was trapped under a Connecticut Transit bus.
Multiple people called 911 to report the incident around 3:10 p.m. According to Stamford Police Sgt. Jeffrey Booth of the department's Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Squad, the driver of the bus was making a left turn onto Atlantic Street from Broad Street when the bus collided with the woman.
Booth said the woman had the right of way and was in the crosswalk when she was struck. The bus driver claimed he did not see the woman, according to Booth, but he was issued an infraction for failure to grant the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
"He should have seen her," Booth said.
Josh Rickman, interim deputy general manager for Connecticut Transit, declined to comment on the incident, saying there is an active investigation ongoing.
After the collision, the woman was trapped under the front axle of the bus, directly below the part of the bus where passengers enter and exit.
Stamford firefighters responded within two minutes and found the woman conscious and able to speak. However, she was in visible pain, said Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Palmer; her waist was compressed between the asphalt and the weight of the bus.
Palmer was able to communicate with her the entire time, he said. The first question she asked, he said, was how long it would take to get her out.
Palmer said he told her she had the finest firefighters working to help her.
The first priority, Palmer said, was stabilizing the vehicle, which was a tandem bus or "accordion bus," essentially two buses joined in the middle by a section that resembles an accordion.
In order to stabilize the bus, firefighters began using four-by-four pieces of wood to hold up the vehicle, a common firefighter technique known as "cribbing." Once the pieces were placed in strategic places around the woman and the vehicle was secure from creating even more pressure on her, the next step was lifting it.
That's where DeAngelo came in, as he was put in charge of raising the 27,000 pound vehicle, which was done by inflating air bags underneath the body of the bus.
As the air bags filled, the bus was slowly lifted, and firefighters added extra cribbing to further support it and prevent it from dropping if the air bags failed, he said.
Eventually, the bus was lifted a few inches, allowing firefighters to slide underneath and help the woman escape. In the end, they were able to save her in under 10 minutes, according to a press release put out by the department.
"The best thing we can do for people is get them out fast," said DeAngelo, a member of the department's specialized Rescue 5 station.
He said members of the rescue unit are well trained on lifting heavy objects such as vehicles and they do drills almost every week simulating real-life scenarios. That training was put to good use on Tuesday, he said, as all the firefighters essentially followed the steps they have practiced over and over.
Still, the experience was a first for DeAngelo.
"I've never lifted a bus before," he said.
At the train station later in the day, many of the same firefighters who were at the bus scene were also present.
Deputy Fire Chief Tom Gloersen said a woman fell in the gap between the platform and the train about 8:10 p.m. when getting off.
The space between the platform and the train "was certainly big enough for someone who miss-stepped to get through," Gloersen said.
Aaron Donovan, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said Metro-North personnel regularly review the size of the gaps at all stations.
"When necessary, crews take steps to reduce the gap by making adjustments to the platform or the track alignment," he wrote in an emailed message. "The MTA's investigation into this incident is in its early stages."
After the woman fell, the train conductor seemingly realized there was an issue and shut down the train, Gloersen said.
"I didn't get into why he stopped, I was just happy that he stopped," Gloersen said.
Firefighters made their way to the woman by going under the train. They then placed her in a "Stokes basket," which is a type of stretcher, and brought her to the other side of the train.
The woman was then lifted and carried through the open train and onto the platform level.
"Usually when we get people under trains, it ends up in a totally different way," Gloersen said.
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