SAN DIEGO — San Diego Fire-Rescue, as well as San Diego State are both responding to the number of heat related medical calls associated with Saturday’s home opener at Snapdragon Stadium.
Video posted to TikTok by Kris Golojuch shows fans huddling for shade, medical personnel tending to patients, and staff handing out free water and ice to help those struggling in the intense heat.
"It was awful. People were looking for every inch of shade which was only cast on the ground from the grandstand," said Golojuch.
San Diego State athletic director John David Wicker addressed the issues Tuesday, saying the university prepared as best it could.
"We prepped our medical staff as much as we could and had as many folks on site as we could," said Wicker.
But, San Diego Fire-Rescue says not enough preparations were made. In a lengthy statement just released Thursday they said:
"Snapdragon Stadium is state of California property managed by San Diego State University which is a state school. Even though the stadium is located within the jurisdiction of the City of San Diego, SD Fire-Rescue received the medical plan two days prior to the event. A heat injury/illness plan was not provided.
American Medical Response (AMR) has the contract for EMS services at the stadium and was the agency managing care of patients at the event. On several occasions prior to the event, the SDFD fire marshal, Deputy Chief Tosca and EMS Deputy Chief Pierce offered to collaborate with SDSU on the medical plan for the event, but it was clear that our input was not solicited. Chief Pierce did request that Falck work directly with Snapdragon to provide ambulances and this resulted in Falck advanced lifesaving (ALS) ambulances being at the stadium along with AMR apparatus.
It’s also important to note that because the stadium is located within the City of San Diego, fire or EMS emergencies that occur at the stadium would potentially be handled by City of SD departments such as SDPD and SDFD. In this case, it was evident that the sheer number of patients at the game quickly overwhelmed the EMS resources on site and required assistance from SDFD.
At about 10:40 a.m., SDFD’s dispatch center began receiving 9-1-1 calls from people at the event who were requesting medical aid. Even though AMR had resources at the event, including several first aid stations, the extreme heat and lack of shade caused the number of patients to increase quickly. Patients called from the stadium parking lot as well as from inside the stadium. At about 12:30 p.m., Chiefs Pierce and Tosca were considering a recommendation to SDSU to cancel the event because of the high volume of medical aid calls for service at the game. Ultimately, because cancelling the event wouldn’t solve the problem, the recommendation was to allow the event to continue and address the multi-casualty incident with the fans in place at the venue.
With regard to SDFD resources that responded to the event, engines 18, 31, 45 and truck 45 were dispatched to the stadium to handle medical aid calls beginning at about 10:40 a.m. At 2:08 p.m. Chief Pierce decided to send in a task force which was made up of three engine companies and a battalion chief. The engine companies that made up the task force were: engines 9, 11 and 20. Battalion 4 was the battalion chief assigned to the task force. At one point, there were 7 engine companies and 1 battalion chief providing medical aid at Snapdragon Stadium. This was in addition to the resources pre-positioned at the event as part of the medical plan.
The challenge is that because there were so many patients who needed assistance, each patient was not necessarily tracked as a data point. The goal of the SDFD crews who responded to the stadium was to reinforce the first aid stations and handle requests for medical aid. They treated many patients without taking the time to track each one because of the urgency of the circumstances. In addition, in the SDFD computer aided dispatch system, the response by a few crews to the stadium are reflected as one incident versus creating an incident for each patient. We do know that our task force crews tracked 14 heat-related responses and 5 of those patients were transported to local hospitals. In the attached table titled “SDSU Football Game at Snapdragon Stadium” you will find the number of incidents handled by the crews that arrived after 10:40 a.m. but this table doesn’t reflect patients, it reflects incidents created in the computer aided dispatch system."
Beyond the numbers San Diego Fire-Rescue provided, CBS8 reached out to Falck, one of two ambulance providers on site and were told their staff treated 10 patients, six of whom went to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Wicker previously told the media he thought there were nearly 200 medical requests during the game.
San Diego State responded to San Diego Fire- Rescue's claims with a lengthy statement of their own:
"During the first game at Snapdragon Stadium, there was an unprecedented heat wave which caused a number of attendees to have heat-related illnesses and who had to be treated onsite.
As SDSU is a state institution, the state fire marshal has jurisdiction and SDSU works closely and collaboratively with that office on emergency plans. SDSU does not provide a medical plan for any of its venues (for example, Viejas Arena) to the city fire department. However, for the sake of collaboration, the university did share its plans with SDFD.
SDSU utilized every resource available to help reduce the heat’s impacts. In advance of the game, the university worked with San Diego Fire-Rescue (SDFD) and other departments in the stadium’s unified command to respond to the conditions. We proactively communicated with fans in advance regarding the ability to bring in sealed bottles of water and the availability of water filling stations throughout the stadium. Additionally, there were multiple water misting zones on the concourse level. SDSU also added the City’s preferred ambulance provider, Falck, to response plans as requested by SDFD. During the event, the university made changes as needed, called in additional resources, and acted on feedback from SDFD, including requesting additional ambulances from AMR. SDSU also handed out approximately 200 cases of free water to fans during the game. Given severe conditions across the region, we will continue to evaluate our plans and implement changes for future events.
SDSU values its relationship with SDFD and its presence and expertise in the unified command center for stadium events, as we have been coordinating in the months leading up to stadium opening.
For additional context: The university did in fact collaborate with SDFD in advance of the Sept. 3 game. On Tuesday, Aug 30, SDFD requested review of the medical plan for the stadium. SDSU shared the medical plan on Wednesday, Aug. 31; it is not accurate to say that SDSU did not provide a medical plan. This was a similar timeline used for the Aug. 20 scrimmage, as the university shared the medical plan five days prior to the event to receive recommendations from SDFD.
Prior to Sept. 3, out of an abundance of caution, SDSU agreed (as noted above) to add Falck to the response plan at SDFD’s request despite SDSU already having a contract in place with AMR for ambulance and medical services. However, SDFD did not provide feedback on the complete response plan document in advance of the Sept. 3 game, and no additional recommendations were shared by SDFD prior to the game day. Canceling the game was not considered, nor did SDFD make that recommendation.
SDSU will continue to encourage discussions and collaboration in advance of games with fire officials, and fire officials will continue to be in the unified command center for football games and other stadium events.
We always want to provide our fans an outstanding experience, and we are focused on continuing to improve as the season continues, no matter the weather conditions or circumstances. We thank the fans and all those in attendance for their ongoing support as we continue to work hard to meet and exceed fan expectations for Snapdragon Stadium."
The two organizations are scheduled to have a meeting prior to this Saturday’s game against Idaho State.
WATCH RELATED: Scorching heat at Snapdragon Stadium forces fans out of their seats and into shade (September 2022)