By Eric G. Bachman and Philip A. Colvin
Fourth of July 2001 festivities were interrupted by a call for a person trapped in a cave in Mount Joy Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At 1451 hours, the Lancaster Countywide Communications Center received a call that a man was trapped in a cave after a partial collapse. When volunteers from the Fire Department Mount Joy (FDMJ) arrived three minutes later, they found a 24-year-old male lying on his back headfirst in a 10-foot-deep horizontal hole and covered from the chest down by tons of rock. The incident quickly turned into a multicounty and state response that required specialized resources and lasted nearly 29 hours. After 24 hours of rescue efforts, the victim succumbed to his injuries after a major collapse.
Although the rescue efforts were unsuccessful, this incident was an extraordinary example of cooperation and professionalism. It reinforced the need to maintain a structured incident command system and to maintain detailed resource lists. It also emphasizes the need to expand preincident intelligence practices beyond fixed facilities and transportation corridors to include environmental hazards.
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