Paramedic Coyle Marks 30 Years

Fire Station 69 Paramedic Dane Coyle, who has been based in Pacific Palisades for the past 17 years, celebrated his 30th anniversary with the Los Angeles Fire Department on May 4. Coyle is well-known among some residents because he and fellow paramedic, Ed Strange, were able to revive Palisadian Bob Heilemann after he went into cardiac arrest near the end of the Will Rogers 10K in 2007. No strangers to heroism, Coyle and Strange had earlier received a Medal of Valor in 2000. The men were honored at Dodger Stadium for their heroic actions during a shoot-out/standoff in Marina Pointe Apartments near Lincoln Boulevard and Maxella. ‘We were the next posted ambulance (after Venice),’ said Coyle, explaining why Rescue 69 had been called to the apartment building.   A fugitive from Tennessee, Joseph Allen had barricaded himself in one of the apartments and had shot a U.S. marshal from the window. Allen injured a second officer who was in the building by shooting through a door.   ’When we pulled up, a U.S. marshal was leaning out of a window shouting that his partner had been shot and he couldn’t stop the bleeding,’ Coyle recalled. Allen was holding off a SWAT team with an AK-47.   ’We sort of snuck in and found that he [the officer] had a severed brachial artery, so we then managed to sneek him out,’ Coyle said, noting that paramedics are not supposed to go into that kind of situation until a fugitive has been apprehended. Their action saved the man’s life.   According to Coyle, a more typical day in Station 69 involves dealing with accident victims and incidents involving the elderly.   ’We have a huge senior population base here,’ he said. ‘People are living longer and you see a lot of people who are the sole survivor; they have no children, their husband/wife and brothers and sisters are gone. They’re on their own up here in the Palisades. It’s surprising how many there are, and how many can’t take care of themselves or don’t have a family’s assistance in making a decision.’   Coyle continued, ‘Many people know their elderly neighbors because they see them in the yard or getting their mail and they look like they’re functioning, but it becomes obvious they need assistance when we go inside their house.’   The other most common call paramedics receive is for traffic accidents on Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard. ‘We see trauma victims week in and week out,’ he said. ‘It seems we have a lot of serious accidents in this area.’ After graduating from Royal High School in Simi Valley in 1974, Coyle thought he would become a policeman. While studying for his justice degree at Moorpark College, he worked at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks. Watching the paramedics, he changed his mind and entered a six-month intensive paramedic program at Daniel Freeman, which included a clinical phase and then two months of on-the-job training.   Coyle was one of 5,000 applicants who took the test for a paramedic position and one of only 75 hired. His first job was in Ventura with the Premier Ambulance Company in 1978, but he wanted to work for a bigger department with more opportunities, so he took a test and was hired by the Los Angeles Fire Department.   Coyle likes Pacific Palisades because ‘this area is small enough and isolated, so that you’ll run into people that you’ve taken care of and that makes it special. You’ll be eating at the Pantry and people come up and say hi.’   While not on duty, he runs Dane Coyle Custom Homes, a construction company in Thousand Oaks. He is president of the Eight-Ball Flying Club in Van Nuys, which allows dues-paying members to fly a Cessna Piper. (The club has three Cessna Pipers and a Piper Saratoga.) He also likes to snow ski at Mammoth and water ski at Lake Powell.   ’I could have stopped doing this a long time ago and just done construction, but I work with a great group of people,’ Coyle said.   When he finally retires, he plans to build and run a small hotel in Xcalak, on the southernmost tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. ‘It’s a small fishing village that is still undiscovered with beautiful corals and lots of fish,’ he said.   Coyle plans to work two to five years more at Station 69, depending on the city budget cuts. ‘I still have a great time coming to work,’ he said.   While on an ambulance run to St. John’s Hospital three years ago, he met his girlfriend, Palisadian Irma Delgado, who volunteers in the emergency room.   Instead of Station 69 firefighters planning a big party to celebrate a colleague’s 30th, the tradition is for the honoree to throw the party. ‘It’s kind of like a thank-you for putting up with us for so long,’ said Coyle, who plans to make prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes and chocolate and lemon cake sometime in July.