The Call I’ll Never Forget

The day the fire service was called to help a five-tonne elephant

By Marcus Aronsson, Firefighter, Sweden

An ordinary day at the fire station is never really an ordinary day.

You come to work, get changed, check the appliance and the equipment, and do more or less what you usually do.

But when you start a shift, you never really know what is going to happen.

And where do you call when you have a problem you cannot solve yourself, and you are not entirely sure who else could solve it?

The fire service.

This is the story of the day we were called to Borås Zoo to help an elephant weighing around five tonnes.

I am telling it as I remember it.

The elephant was ill and weak. He had lain down on a side he would not normally rest on, and now he could not get back up again. He simply did not have the strength.

The scale of the challenge quickly became obvious. An adult elephant weighs several tonnes, and every movement had to be carefully planned.

The problem was that an elephant cannot lie on the wrong side indefinitely. The situation was becoming critical, and the vet was already there. If we could not get him back on his feet, eventually he would have to be put down.

So there we were.

A group of firefighters, a vet, zoo staff and a five-tonne elephant that could not stand up.

How do you lift an elephant?

It is not exactly something you practise during firefighter training.

Our normal heavy-lifting equipment is designed for lorries, buses and other vehicles. Not for living animals that might suddenly start moving.

And an elephant is not just heavy.

Even the legs are far too heavy to simply grab and move out of the way. The trunk is an extraordinary tool for the elephant, but for us it could also become very dangerous if the animal suddenly became stressed or regained its strength.

Working around animals of this size adds a completely different dimension to rescue operations. Safety, distance and movement all have to be considered.

We thought.

We discussed.

We went through one solution after another.

The problem was really twofold.

First, we needed to roll the elephant onto the correct side. From there, he would have a better chance of using his own technique and whatever strength he had left to get up.

But if that still did not work, we needed to be able to lift him.

And to lift five tonnes of elephant, we needed to get our large pneumatic lifting bags underneath him.

So that became the plan.

Roll the elephant onto the right side while at the same time positioning the lifting bags underneath him. If he still could not get up, we could inflate the bags and help raise him.

A fairly simple plan on paper.

Much harder when the thing you are moving is a living, five-tonne elephant.

Eventually, the vet gave us the word. We had to try.

If this did not work, the elephant would have to be put down.

There was no more room for theory.

We brought out our large lifting bags, the same type we use when we need to lift buses and lorries. We positioned them so that they would end up beneath the elephant as he rolled over.

Then we built a system using the winch cable from one of the fire appliances and lifting slings around the elephant’s legs.

We secured everything, checked it, and prepared.

Then we started pulling.

Slowly, the elephant began to roll.

Eventually, he was lying on the correct side.

And now the lifting bags were underneath him as well.

The first part had worked.

But the elephant still did not get up.

So we began inflating the bags.

Slowly, five tonnes of elephant began to rise from the ground.

When the bags were about half inflated, something happened.

The elephant decided to help.

He made an attempt of his own.

With the extra height and a little bounce from the half-inflated lifting bags, he pushed himself upwards.

Back on four feet. After being rolled onto the right side and given some extra lift from the airbags, the elephant managed to stand.

And suddenly it happened.

Five tonnes of elephant were standing on four legs.

A cheer went up inside the enclosure.

We had done it.

Then came the next thought.

Oh, yes.

He is dangerous.

“OUT!”

The staff only really had to say it once.

Firefighters, keepers and everyone else who had been celebrating a few seconds earlier began getting out of the enclosure rather quickly while the elephant walked around and took stock of the situation.

One of our wide lifting slings was still hanging around him, almost like a scarf.

It stayed there.

Nobody felt any particular urge to go back in and retrieve it at that moment.

The elephant was standing.

The vet did not have to put him down.

Job done.

Fire and rescue crews brought equipment normally used for very different emergencies and adapted it to a completely unfamiliar problem.

We packed up what we could and headed back towards the station.

Another call finished.

Another reminder of how strange it can be to be a firefighter.

You never know what is going to happen when you start your shift.

Sometimes, it ends with you standing in Borås Zoo trying to save the life of a five-tonne elephant.

Marcus Aronsson

Firefighter

Södra Älvsborg Fire & Rescue Service, Sweden