Medic Up! Episode #7 – Aaron Dix – The Greenwood Nursing Home Fire

Medic Up! Episode #7 –  Aaron Dix – Greenwood Nursing Home Fire

This week I’ve got my good friend,  Aaron Dix on the podcast. Aaron comes to the Upstate of South Carolina by way of Hartford Ct. We have very similar experiences in EMS from being brought up through the Exploring program to having solid mentors at very early points in our EMS careers. We share a lot of the same viewpoints and share the same solid knowledge of 80’s & 90’s rap beefs.

Aaron has written several articles for EMS1 that center around the topic of simulation in healthcare. He is currently the Director of Simulation Education at the Greenville Health System Simulation Center. He is a regular speaker at state and National conferences on many topics. He also puts on one helluva 2-day prehospital medicine conference every year. Check out the link below to the Swamp Rabbit Prehospital Medicine Conference. Aaron is still heavily involved in prehospital care as a paramedic and as a firefighter in the Upstate of South Carolina. He does / has done a lot of other stuff too. Too much to type. He’s a part time ninja. He was the back-up pilot of one of the Voltron lion robots in the 80’s. He’s Chuck Norris’s stunt double in Walker Texas Ranger; the list goes on-and-on but I digress.

At approximately 0240 on a freezing February 26th morning, fire was reported at the Greenwood Nursing Home in Hartford Ct. It would later be concluded that a 23-year-old resident who suffered from mental illness set her bed sheets on fire while playing with a butane lighter that another resident gave her earlier that day. The resulting fire and toxic smoke killed 10 residents that morning and 6 others died within the week following the fire.

Aaron was the Medical Incident Commander for this job on that 6°F morning. Listen to him as he recounts what was going through his head while managing this incident. Pearls, pitfalls and lessons learned.

Things you should know:

* This episode runs a little long. Longer than most EMS people’s attention spans. THAT’S WHAT THE PAUSE BUTTON IS FOR!!

* This episode features spicy (NSFW) language. If you like the F-word, then you’re in the right place!

* This episode contains a CrossFit reference.

* The Dave Matthews Band was responsible for civil unrest in Hartford, Ct.

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Thanks for listening.

Here’s some show notes:

Greenwood Nursing Home Fire

List of Deadly Nursing Home Fires in the USA

Mike Rowe: Safety 3rd

Greenville Health System Simulation Center

Exploring

List of 10 classic 80’s and 90’s rap beefs

GHS Swamp Rabbit Prehospital Medical Conference  Save the Date: 2018 conference dates have been released; May 31st and June 1st with a Laerdal sponsored simulation education pre-conference May 30th.

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