Firefighters help teen crash victim

CHILLICOTHE – Serving the community as a volunteer firefighter doesn't just start and stop when the call comes in to respond to a fire or crash. Sometimes, it's just about being a good neighbor.

That's why more than a half-dozen members of the Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Department found themselves surrounded by lumber on a bright Saturday morning in the 800 block of Sugar Tree Road, building a wheelchair ramp for one of three teens seriously injured in an April 13 crash on Moss Hollow Road.

Nineteen-year-old Dakota Ratliff and 18-year-olds Devon Ratliff and Gary Ison suffered significant injuries when the vehicle they were riding in went off the right side of the road and struck a tree, which then came down on the car. Dealing with the most severe injuries and longest hospitalization was Devon Ratliff, who is still at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

"Me and the EMS captain went up and visited the one kid who's still in the hospital, and just through conversation with him and his family, (we learned) they're very time- and financially strapped with all the travel they're having to do back and forth to Columbus," Franklin Township fire Chief Mike Menendez said. "So we did some talking within the department, and we decided, as a department, we would volunteer our time, money, labor and materials and come out here and build this for them."

The idea was hatched on Tuesday, and after having started the physical labor at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, the ramp was more than half completed by noon.

"We're a community, and we take care of our community," Menendez said. "Yes, we are a volunteer fire and EMS department, but our commitment to the community goes farther than that. We don't do this for money, fame or recognition. We do this because we genuinely care about our neighbors."

Also helping with the project was Mark Adkins, regional director of emergency services for 1-800-BoardUp, a national company that normally is involved with boarding up and securing buildings after a structure fire.

Menendez contacted Adkins as the idea was coming together, and the pair went to the home Friday to take measurements and decide what materials would be needed. Then the fire department and the company went in together on purchasing what was needed, and Adkins was back out Saturday working alongside the firefighters and EMS workers.

Devon's father, Gary Ratliff, was glad they were there because, without the ramp in place, his son would have a difficult time in a wheelchair navigating the significant drop in the terrain going into the house when he returns home for the first time on Wednesday.

Devon's prognosis, he said, is pretty good, but the expectation is that he will be in the wheelchair for quite a while — possibly as much as a year or longer.

"He's doing better," Gary Ratliff said. "I called up there today, and he was in therapy and they were getting him up to try and walk. I think it's his hip more than anything, because he broke his femur bone.

"It's already driving him nuts in the hospital. He's wanting to come home."

cbalusik@nncogannett.com

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Twitter: @chris_balusik