On May 25, at around 8:00 p.m., medical emergency responders arrived at Niverville’s Hespeler Park. Emergency vehicles surrounded a soccer pitch while players and onlookers were cleared from the site. Soon a STARS medical helicopter arrived and set down on the pitch.

Fire and EMS chief Keith Bueckert says his staff were called in to attend to a medical emergency, the details of which he is unable to share at this time.

Upon arrival, the Niverville crew called in some local backup to aid in preparing a safe landing zone for the STARS crew when they arrived.

“It’s to get more people on scene so that, if we’re landing in a place that can be busy, like Hespeler Park, the helicopter can’t always see everybody,” Bueckert says. “They’re focused in on the person that’s [helping them land].”

The ground resources provided by local emergency crews also aid when there are issues with the helicopter or when crowd control is needed.

“If you see us setting up a landing zone, this is not a time for people to get close,” Bueckert adds. “When STARS is coming, it’s generally a critical patient that they could be dealing with and time is of the essence. That helicopter has to get on the ground, so follow our instructions, back off, and give us room to work.”

That said, Bueckert says that the crowd gathered on Monday night was very respectful of the buffer zone his crew had set.

According to Bueckert, the entire event, from the time of the medical crew’s first arrival to the time when they were back at the station, took less than 40 minutes.