Photo By Scott Sturkol | Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue...... read more read more
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On Jan. 11 at Fort McCoy’s Big Sandy Lake, the largest lake on the installation’s South Post, firefighters with Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department dive team took time to also practice rescuing people trapping in ice at the surface.
The training for surface ice rescue was in addition to diving training the dive team was completing at the lake Jan. 11, but it’s just as important, said Assistant Fire Chief Hunter Young.
Young explained the main scenario they practiced for each firefighter on the ice that day.
“We were doing (a scenario) that has a fisherman who has fallen through the ice,” Young said. “The first team we have that goes out is going to rescue the fisherman through a surface rescue, and then the fisherman is relays back that his partner has went under water. From there we activate a dive team. The dive team then gets ready, goes in, and finds the second victim.”
That first team Young discussed donned mustang survival and rescue suits, which is a protective suit for going into cold water. According to the suit’s product description, it states they are “immersion survival and rescue suits to keep people warm in cold water or extreme weather conditions. Suits also help maintain buoyancy when submerged in water.”
The firefighters on the surface ice rescue squad also used a sturdy inflatable Rapid Deployment Craft, or RDC, to help get the victim out of the water where they fell through the ice.
According to Oceanid at www.oceanid.com, makers of the RDC, the craft is made with water rescue in mind.
“The RDC, Rapid Deployment Craft, has extremely rockered (upturned) ends,” the website states. “They allow the rescuer to ‘drive’ the boat’s open end over the victim while the victim’s head remains above water at all times. It also allows a rescuer to reach forward into a pour-over while still safely centered in the boat.”
The scenario to “save” a victim from the ice was practiced over and over by the team, Young said, and was done so successfully.
Firefighter Brandon Perron participated in the training. He said it’s important to be ready for any emergency when it comes to saving people stranded on the ice, and he’s glad Fort McCoy has a team that trains to support not just the Fort McCoy community but other communities as well through mutual aid.
“Our training today was unique because we had some of our some of our crew get into the yellow suit to get somebody that's off the surface, and then our divers went under the water to find a victim who was under the ice,” Perron said. “It’s a big importance in our area in particular in that we don’t have (any other) really defined dive teams in our area. Our department having this capability allows us to go anywhere in the Monroe County area to go and help the local communities that don’t have this capability and to be able to be there as quickly as possible to get under the water to help people.”
As a matter of course, safety officials also said that people should always be aware of the thickness of ice on a body of water before they venture out on it. According to takemefishing.org’s ice fishing safety rules at https://www.takemefishing.org/ice-fishing/ice-fishing-basics/ice-fishing-safety, there are some tips people can follow to be ready.
“One of the most important ice fishing basics is that of following ice thickness guidelines,” the website states. “While most anglers know intuitively that thin ice can be extremely dangerous, fewer may know that white ice or ‘snow ice’ is only about half as strong as new clear ice. Follow the ice thickness recommendations below to maximize fishing safety.”
—2 inches or less — STAY OFF.
— 4 inches — Ice fishing or other activities on foot.
— 5 inches — Snowmobile or ATV.
— 8 – 12 inches — Car or small pickup.
— 12 – 15 inches — Medium truck.
(Note: These guidelines are for new, clear solid ice. Many factors other than thickness can cause ice to be unsafe. Double the above thickness guidelines when traveling on white ice to ensure ice safety.)
Young said the Fort McCoy Fire Department supports ice rescue calls through mutual aid whenever asked.
“We've helped out across the county and assisted (in the past),” Young said. “We have some good mutual aid partners who we work with regularly.”
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
| Date Taken: | 01.19.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 01.19.2023 10:45 |
| Story ID: | 436918 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 197 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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