Acadian’s Air Med, the One Gulf Offshore Emergency Call Center and Acadian Ambulance played a key role in rescue efforts after Tuesday’s oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana, transporting 18 of the workers injured in the blast to local New Orleans area and Alabama hospitals.

Eleven people are still missing after the massive fire on the Deepwater Horizon. According to information released by the Coast Guard today, 18 people were injured.

Air Med officials mobilized immediately after receiving word of the accident. “With 130 people in the water and a massive rig explosion, we knew we had to get out there,” said Marc Creswell, Air Med Operations Manager. The One Gulf Emergency Call Center, staffed with Nic Michel and Safety Management Systems Director of Operations Matt Savoy, coordinated the rescue with Transocean, BP, the Coast Guard and other companies.  Safety Management Systems had 3 paramedics on neighboring BP platforms that assisted in the triage and support of the helicopters responding to the incident:  Seth Fuselier and Troy Bernard of Lafayette and Mike Jones of California.

Jerod Meaux, with Air Med, assisted in the airlifting of six patients to the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile.  Air Med’s EC135 arrived from a staging platform about 30 miles from the site of the blast. The Air Med crew of Creswell, Raymond Mouton and pilots Dale Ducote and Seth Gardner airlifted two patients to West Jefferson Medical Center in New Orleans.

Nine Acadian ambulances and two more Air Med helicopters also were dispatched to the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station to transport injured workers. The ground and air crews on scene coordinated the transportation of patients to New Orleans hospitals.

The workers on the rig who were safely evacuated were being taken by boat to Port Fourchon, accompanied by two Acadian medics. According to news reports, the boats carrying the workers are expected to arrive in Port Fourchon tonight.