Press Release – August 11, 2020 Three significantly violent incidents in ten days!

Menlo Park Fire Protection District

Three significantly violent incidents in ten days!

Firefighters/Paramedics respond to stabbings and a shooting in East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Unincorporated County Areas

Menlo Park Firefighter/Paramedics have responded to an unusual and troubling number of disturbingly violent medical incidents in East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and the Unincorporated County Areas it provides emergency services to over the last ten days. Increasingly violent incidents seemed to be a trend that was going on Nationwide, primarily in major Cities and Urban Centers, but not in the smaller local suburban areas, like the ones the Fire District provides emergency services too!

City of East Palo Alto – August 2, 2020:

8:11 pm – Firefighters on Menlo Engine 2 respond to a reported multi-vehicle accident on Gardenia Way. Police officers arrive first and discover a double shooting involving two male victims located inside of a vehicle that has struck four other cars. Firefighter/Paramedics arrive on scene and after their patient assessments, determine that both victims are deceased.

City of Menlo Park – August 9, 2020:

3:02 pm – Firefighters on Menlo Engine 6 respond to a reported stabbing at the 7-Eleven store on the 500 block of Oak Grove Avenue. They arrive on-scene at 3:03 pm and Police Officers bring them into the scene at 3:04 pm to treat the store clerk who had been attacked and suffered stab wounds to the neck. Fire/Paramedics treated the victim who was transported to Stanford’s Trauma Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Unincorporated San Mateo County – Sequoia Tract August 11, 2020 – Today!

5:11 am - San Mateo County Public Safety Communications Center (PSC) receives a call from a residential structure on Sequoia Avenue reporting an assault. Sheriffs Deputies arrive on-scene at 5:15 am followed by Menlo Engine 3 at 5:16 am. Firefighters are told to “stage out” until the scene is secure due to multiple stabbing victims. At 5:20 am Firefighters are brought into the scene.

Captain/Paramedic Matt Menard and the crew of Menlo Engine 3 were brought into the secured scene where Sheriff’s Deputies were administering CPR to a male victim in the driveway, Captain Menard assigned the American Medical Response (AMR) Paramedic Ambulance crew of Medic 75 to assess that patient because he is alerted by Sheriff’s Deputies to several more victims located inside the building. Once inside, they quickly located a female and male victim. The female is unresponsive and determined as deceased. The male victim is viable and all efforts are focused on treating him for multiple stab/puncture wounds. as well as blood loss.  

Captain/Paramedic Menard confers with Woodside Battalion 2 and declares a Multi-Casualty Level One Incident (1 – 5 patients) at 5:26 am, when he is alerted that there may be yet another victim. This provides the incident with an additional Fire/Paramedic Crew (Menlo Engine 4), additional ambulances (Woodside Medic 107), an AMR Supervisor, as well as it alerts local trauma centers of potential multiple in-coming critical patients.

The AMR Transport Ambulance - Medic 75, is unable to revive their patient due to his multiple stab wounds and he is determined to be deceased. Captain/Paramedic  Menard re-assigns the two person ambulance transport crew to a “load and go” code 3 (red lights and siren) of the male victim inside the structure. Accompanied by Fire/Paramedics, AMR Transport 75 leaves for Stanford Hospitals Trauma Center at 5:36 am. 

Menlo Engine 4 arrives on-scene and is directed to treat a female patient with lacerations to her hands. Woodside Fire Transport Medic 107 arrives on-scene at 5:32 am and is directed to assist Fire/Paramedics treating the female. Medic Transport 107 leaves for Stanford Hospitals Trauma Center at 5:54 am with a patient who is considered stable.

Captain/Paramedic Menard is a seasoned veteran of the Fire Service and also a Medical Unit Leader on a special Federal Wildland Fire Management Team. This was his first tour of duty since returning from the July Complex Fire in Modoc County. That fire burned 83,000 acres and Menard was directly responsible for supervising up to 60 medical field staff members that were supporting up to 1,800 firefighters on the fire line operating from three base camps. He directly supervised and helped to develop all COVID-19 medical protocols and safeguards for this first of fire season major Federal fire incident in California.

When Menard was asked to describe todays emergency incident, he said “to put it into perspective, I’ve been working twenty hour days for the last two weeks in the middle of nowhere helping fight a wildfire and take care of an army of fire personnel. I was looking forward to seeing my crew and returning to my normal work routine, so it was very sobering to see and experience what we needed to do today, the emergency scene can only best be described as horrific. The Sheriff’s Department did a great job securing the scene and getting us in there as fast as they could so we could assess, treat and rapidly transport all the viable patients to give them the greatest chance of survival”.

Fire Chief Schapelhouman said “because of the pandemic and shelter in place orders we have seen our call volume drop about 25% like many local fire agencies. As the economy has started to open up and people are out and about again, our call volume has normalized. However, these three separate, non-related but significantly violent incidents can only best be compared locally against the Taliban Gang issues in Belle Haven a decade ago or the late 1980’s and/or the early 1990’s violence in East Palo Alto. I truly hope this is an anomaly, because coupled with some proposed and actual reductions in funding to law enforcement, changes in sentencing, proposed incident approach and other measures, I’m concerned about both public safety and the ability of our firefighters to safely and effectively do their jobs”. 

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District, provides critical fire and emergency services to its areas in the Town of Atherton, Cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, unincorporated San Mateo County and the SLAC National Accelerator and Laboratories.

For more information from the Fire District please go to our web-site atwww@menlofire.org: or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Next Door

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