MERIDIAN —     Firefighters and EMTs at Naval Air Station Meridian used their training to help a man severely injured in an automobile accident outside the base gate.

    On the evening of Sept. 12, 2012, emergency personnel from the naval air station responded to a one vehicle accident within several yards of the installations housing gate. The initial call to report the accident came from a security guard who witnessed the accident.

    The call came into the fire station at 7:59 p.m. Firefighters and EMT's were on the scene within 2 minutes and 40 seconds to aid the victim, a male in his 50s. Metro Ambulance Service from the city of Meridian was contacted at the same time, but the estimated arrival time would be 10-15 minutes.

     "When we arrived on the scene the victim was face down in a ditch," said Chip Johnson, a firefighter and EMT with 23 years of experience. "At first it didn't seem serious but as soon as we started assessing the victim the situation quickly turned."

    The victim was unresponsive and his eyes were fixed and dilated.

    Johnson, firefighter Michael Phillips and Capt. Lance Phelps provided care for the injured man.

    Phelps said the first thing they did was protect the man's neck and spine since he was outside of the vehicle when personnel arrived on scene.

    "He had a large laceration to his right forehead above the eye," Phelps said. "I bandaged the laceration with pressure dressing. His breathing was labored and he was unresponsive. Based on his injuries we knew we needed to get him to the hospital as fast as we could."

    With 18 years of experience in firefighting and emergency response service, Phillips was the first to administer CPR to the victim.

    "We don't deal with that serious of an accident that often, but when we do our training really kicks in. The whole goal is to give the victim the best type of care. Everyone has to work together to save lives."

    NAS Meridian Fire and Emergency Services has a staff of 57 personnel with 95 percent of them EMT trained.

    "We have a mutual aid agreement with the city of Meridian and Lauderdale County to assist whenever we can," said NAS Meridian Fire Chief Andrew Clayton. "We have a great relationship with Metro Ambulance — we are all here to protect and aid citizens in times of need."

    Within 13 minutes of the initial call, the accident victim was loaded onto a stretcher, placed in the back of a NAS Meridian ambulance, and began the transport to a hospital in Meridian.

    NAS Meridian ambulance met Metro on Highway 39 North and the victim was transferred to their ambulance for advanced life support. Johnson and Phillips continued to administer CPR to the victim while the Metro paramedic administered life saving cardiac monitoring and drugs.

    "We have a good partnership with Metro," Johnson said. "It is our job to cover the base, but if anyone outside the base in the surrounding community needs help and we can assist. It is our duty to help. It doesn't matter who gets there first, just someone who cares and is well trained to help the victim."