Fire Dept. Reached Downtown Accident Victim in 4 Minutes

Capt. Keith Cross of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department and a fire crew were in the McLean Giant getting lunch Friday around noon when the lights went out.

"I mentioned to the guys, we'll be running a call now," said Capt. Cross, who heads the McLean fire station. A couple of minutes later they received a message: An accident literally around the corner in front of Greenberry's coffee shop on Beverly Road in downtown McLean.

"We were here in less than four minutes," Cross said Sunday recounting the Friday events.

His fire unit arrived at 12:08pm and found a car crashed against a utility pole. "We found several citizens in the car performing CPR," Cross said.“We’re very appreciative of the help the citizens gave,” he said.

“The police offers arrived about the same time --- helping in treating the patient," Cross said.

The victim "was still in cardiac arrest" when the fire department took over, he said.  "We have a paramedic on every engine company," Cross said. "We got him out of the car, on the ground and started CPR," he said.

The victim was James Christensen, 66, of Vienna. He was driving his 2002 Ford Taurus southbound on Beverly Road, when he may have suffered a medical emergency, Fairfax County police said.

Christensen’s vehicle crossed into the northbound lane of Beverly Road, struck a parked vehicle and then struck a utility pole. The owners of the parked car were in Greenberry's, a popular downtown coffee shop,  getting coffee when the accident occurred.

The first ambulance arrived at 12:14pm, Cross said and a second at 12:15 pm, a Fairfax fire spokesman said.

Christensen was breathing again when the fire crew put him in an EMS unit from Arlington with advanced life support, Cross said. Christensen was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital and later transferred to Virginia Hospital Center where he died later that evening.

Some customers and staff at Greenberry's when the accident occurred said it seemed to take from 8 to 11 minutes for the fire department to arrive.

“When an emergency occurs and you’re on the scene it seems to take longer," Capt. Cross said.

 He explained that 911 calls go to a central county dispatch center.

"We have GPS (on every fire and police vehicle) and they will dispatch from the closest unit," he said.

 “The the main reason we have paramedics on the fire trucks is so that we can get to the scene quickly and start advanced life support while the EMS unit is still in route," he said.

The McLean EMS unit was busy on another call.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct Mr. Christensen's age. The Fairfax police incorrectly reported his age.