The Fort Assiniboine Fire Department is a lot like the Boy Scouts, they always want to be prepared.
In their continuing efforts to be just that, firefighters from the Fort Assiniboine Fire Department took part in a three day swift water rescue course.
Fire chief Jeff Schulte said although the department isn’t often called upon to do river rescues, they want to be prepared, just in case.
“As you can see, the river (Assiniboine River) can be really busy,” he said, adding just in the few hours fire crews were on the river on Sunday, June 29, they had seen numerous jet boats and kayakers, a helicopter hovering above the river, and even a float plane touch down. “We don’t get a lot of calls, but we see the need for it.”
Schulte recounted an example that happened on the Freeman River two years ago.
Even though the Freeman river is a fast moving river that isn’t necessarily suited for activities, such as floating on the river, every summer it attracts many tubers, including a few that have bitten off more than they can handle.
Schulte said two tubers ran into a bit of trouble and although they were able to safely get off the river, they ended up being stranded on the wrong side of the river.
“It was in the evening, wet and hypothermia was starting to set in,” he said.
The tubers were spotted by a passerby who went to the firehall and told crews that there were two people who might be in some difficulty. Luckily for the tubers, the fire department quickly dispatched a boat and everything ended on a positive note.
“That’s why we are doing it, to have a little preventative maintenance,” Schulte said. The first day of the course consisted of mostly theory work, while days two and three were hands-on with the firefighters taking part in a number of different rescue scenarios, from both in the river on boats to rescues initiated from the shore.
Although the firefighters where most excited about being able to take part in the live action scenarios, Schulte felt that the bookwork might have been the most valuable part of the course.
“It was at the observance level. You learned about rivers. Where is the best place to make a rescue, what to watch for,” he said.
For example, the firefighters learned that one of the best places to attempt a rescue or to get out of a river if someone has fallen in is an eddy.
“An eddy occurs in places like behind this logjam. In front is like a sieve and you don’t want to get in there, but behind, in the eddy, the water is calm,” he explained to the Leader. “Rivers are predictable, the water is predictable, so you can learn how to read the river.”
Being familiar with the river and knowing where the potential dangers are is one of the reasons the Fort Assiniboine Fire Department have chosen to enlist the help of area boaters.
Schulte said the fire department has a group of about five people, who have volunteered themselves and their boats to help, when the department is involved in a water rescue.
“One day, perhaps we will get our own boat, but one of the things the instructor stressed was knowing the river. If you don’t know the river, where things can be of danger, you are not going to be as well equipped as someone who really knows it,” he said. “By using community people, that are on the river all the time, we are tapping a resource that isn’t readily learned.”
