Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles swarmed the parking lot of South Whidbey High School Thursday to help load a local resident into a helicopter, according to Deputy Chief Mike Cotton with South Whidbey Fire/EMS.

The emergency call didn’t involve any student or staff, Cotton said, only the use of the school’s football field that temporarily turned into a helipad.

“It was an airlift for a medical call,” he said. “A Deer Lake area resident was transported to Harborview Medical Center when a helicopter came from Seattle.”

About the same time around 11 a.m., South Whidbey units were dispatched to two other 911 calls involving medical emergencies, Cotton said.

“There were three calls in the same area,” he said. “We all ended up in the parking lot to confer afterward because there’s space to park here.”