November 19, 2008

Badger Daylighting crew comes to the rescue — again

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Badger Daylighting to the rescue, the sequel, recently took place in Vaughan when the local fire department called for help to free a man trapped in a ditch.

“The fire department had exhausted their efforts to hand-dig him out and they were worried about the position of his legs which they could not determine,” explained Scott Gaudun, dispatcher at Badger.

The man was trapped near his Steeles and Dufferin home around 4 p.m., on a rainy afternoon last month. The rain had impeded attempts to free him. Badger’s GPS system helped Gaudun determine which truck was closest to the rescue site and in just over 30 minutes it was there.

“The GPS helped us to see who was closest and because of the time of day, we had to sort out which truck also had room to take on more material,” said Gaudun. “The truck ended up removing mostly water and hard clay material.”

Once the Badger truck was on site, positioned about 40 feet away from the trapped man, it removed the material with its hydro vacuum hose. Firefighters were then able to extricate the man safely. The man suffered minor injuries.

This past April, Toronto firefighters called upon Badger to help a worker trapped at a work site on Bloor Street, just east of Sherbourne Street. ..dTwo workers had been digging a well when one worker fell in and the pit walls collapsed around him. In that rescue, Badger positioned its truck 50 feet from the pit and used a six inch-diameter plastic hose, removing just over a cubic yard of water and material in 15 minutes, to help free the man.

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