By Jim Kalvelage
Ruidoso News (New Mexico)
What is described as a true all-terrain rescue vehicle finds a home in Lincoln County.
The Argo eight-wheel drive amphibious rescue vehicle was obtained by the Lincoln County Office of Emergency Services through a federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
And, it got its first use on Monday.
“It is the ultimate rescue vehicle,” said Travis Atwell, the county’s director of emergency services. “We can take it anywhere.”
The vehicle is capable of climbing slopes of up to 30 degrees.
“It’s a true all terrain vehicle that can go through snow, water and mud,” said Atwell. “It would have worked during the 2008 flood.”
Hundreds of people, many campers, were stranded when the Rio Ruidoso and the Rio Bonito overflowed their banks on July 27 and 28, 2008.
Monday’s mission for the equipment involved going into the Capitan Mountains to repair radio communications equipment used by the county’s ambulance service that is headquartered at the Lincoln County Medical Center.
The equipment is about two-thirds up the east side of the mountains.
“There must have been 200 trees down along the forest road that goes to the repeater equipment,” said Atwell.
He surmised the high amount of toppled trees was the result of the Dec. 8, 2009 high winds that buffeted the area.
“The vehicle went over many trees, but we did a lot of cutting too.
“With the snow drifts along the way there would have been no way another vehicle would get up there.”
The trip took about 1.5 hours up and 30 to 40 minutes coming down.
Atwell said a 15-member swift water rescue team, made up of firefighters from the Ruidoso Downs Fire Department, and from other volunteer departments around the county, will be assembled.
The Argo seats six people when on land and four people in water.
A stretcher has been ordered for when a rescued person is injured and an EMT is a part of the rescue operation.
The grant covered the complete cost of the vehicle. Lincoln County paid for a trailer to haul it around.
Because the Argo remains federal property, it is required to be used regionally.
Atwell said the super-sized ATV could have been a big plus a month ago.
When high winds in December toppled a communications tower on Buck Mountain northwest of Ruidoso, the vehicle could have been used to achieve quicker access to the snowed in location.
Copyright 2010 Ruidoso News, a MediaNews Group Newspaper