Fairfield Fire Department prepare for ice rescues with training

FAIRFIELD - The Fairfield Fire Department will be more ready than ever before for ice rescues.

Over the weekend, the department participated in two-days worth of training. After acquiring rescue suits several months back, the department tested them out for the first time and dove into the lake at Waterworks Park on Sunday.

The firefighters got a feel for being in freezing waters and practiced pulling themselves out of ice. In addition to Fairfield firefighters, members of the Packwood and Lockridge departments also participated in the training.

'It's just another resource available in case it's needed in an emergency,” Fairfield Fire Department fire chief Scott Vaughan said. The chief explained that the department was able to get suits in part through a grant with the city's local-option sales tax. The suits provide 40 lbs. of buoyancy and insulation that protect the firefighters from the cold.

While ice rescues do not occur often, Vaughan noted they do sometimes happen. Just last month, a dog had fallen through the ice into Pleasant Lake in Fairfield.

Firefighter Mark Brown explained that during the training, he learned the first method of rescue is to coach people 'to get out on their own.”

'They can self-rescue if they still have the strength to do so. They go in the ice and they lose the strength to self-rescue in five to ten minutes,” Brown said, 'What the public needs to know is if they do fall through the ice, the first minute, they don't need to focus on getting out, they just need to focus on their breathing.”

Brown said the first course of action for people who have fallen through ice is to remain calm. As long as a person is holding onto the ice shell, they can avoid going under.

'They have about ten minutes to rescue themselves and a healthy adult has about 30 minutes before they go into hypothermia, so you have time to rescue yourself … basically, we have to get them out within the first hour to have a successful outcome,” he added.

If a person cannot rescue themselves, the department's next course of action would be to extend a rope or rescue stick in an attempt to pull a person out and coordinate a rescue from shore. Other methods of rescue may also include using a boat.

'These suits are what we call a go-rescue and it's the last thing we would do. That's where we tie a rope to a guy and send him out. Then he retrieves the person and brings them back,” Brown said.