Brandon Twp. – Surrounded by sheets of thin ice, four Brandon firefighters moved with critical precision to retrieve a victim from the frigid waters of Clear Lake.
‘Don’t move’keep holding onto the ice,? shouted Brandon Firefighter Billy Starr, cold water rescue team member and paramedic. ‘We coming up behind you now, ma’am.?
Clad in thick neoprene water suits, Starr floated in front of the victim, coaxing her to stay above the spongy ice, while Scott Williams, Johnathan Schechter, and David Castle circled the icebound victim to secure floats and lifelines from behind.
Artfully, the team quickly escorted the victim to shore completing another Cold Water Rescue training session for the Brandon Fire Department.
The department routinely performs cold water rescues for animals which, according to Sgt. Dave Kwapis, Brandon Fire Department shift commander, have been excellent training opportunities but they have never had to perform a human rescue.
With an air temperature of 30 degrees, the Jan. 3 winter exercise further prepares the department firefighter paramedics, should someone actually fall through the ice.
Team cold water commander David Castle explains that people should not go out onto the ice without Ice-Awl (screw driver-like spikes). In the event of a break through the tools can be used to hold onto the ice surface.
Castle also explained that a victim should conserve energy, which could reduce chances for quick onset of hypothermia, by not struggling, if possible by hanging one’s arms up onto the ice.
‘Coming up from behind the victim will avoid breaking ice in front of her,? explained Kwapis.
‘If the ice breaks away from the patient, they could go under the water and we take a chance on losing them,? he continued.
Kwapis says it is not uncommon for anxious fisherman and/or children to venture onto the lake early in the season, stating Brandon sheriff deputies have already chased children off Clear Lake on several occasions in the past few weeks.
Training, however, is the key to department teamwork and Kwapis said early in the season is the perfect time because the ice is beginning to form, but not yet stable enough for winter activities, however people do attempt to go onto the lake as soon as ice forms.
? These are the perfect conditions to practice cold water rescues,? said Kwapis. ‘These are the conditions that people come out here and might end up like this,? he says as he points to the team who are now dragging a second rescued victim to shore.
Holding a thin, airfilled layer of ice Kwapis says that although the ice may look thick enough to hold weight, its spongy formation filled with holes of water and air create unstable and unpredictable ice.
Twice, prior to the exercise, Brandon deputies were called to chase kids off the ice because it was not stable enough to hold their weight, according to the commander.