Ice training provides realistic experience for firefighters
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Members of the Shrewsbury Fire Department work on ice rescue techniques at Lake Quinsigamond Jan. 8. PHOTO/MELISSA MUNTZ

Shrewsbury - Warmer than average temperatures early in the month helped give members of the Shrewsbury Fire Department a realistic setting for their ice rescue training on Lake Quinsigamond.

Unlike past years when a saw was used to cut an opening in the ice to allow for training to take place, Capt. Seth Colby said the 50 degree temperatures had melted the ice just enough to naturally create scattered weak spots on the ice that would likely be present in the place of a real rescue operation.

"Most ice rescues happen in early winter before the ice is completely frozen or in spring when the ice has started to break up," Colby said. "One of the hardest things about an ice rescue is that the ice keeps breaking as you try to get the victim out, which is what's happening today, so the conditions are very helpful for training purposes."

The ice rescue training consisted of three parts: members of Colby's group trained above the surface on the department hovercraft, took turns entering the lake wearing cold water rescue suits and, from shore, practiced using a rope system attached to the men in the water that would be used to pull the rescuer and the victim to safety.

The rescue suits worn into the lake are designed to not only shield the rescuer from the freezing water, but also to provide flotation for both the rescuer and the victim.

Aside from working on techniques to save someone who has fallen through the ice, the firefighters also worked on self-rescue skills necessary should they fall through the ice during a rescue.

"It can be very easy to create more victims in this kind of situation, and with 10 or 20 [rescue personnel], we have the biggest number of potential victims at a scene like this, so we have to be trained to keep ourselves out of trouble," he said.

The Shrewsbury Fire Department receives an average of three calls per year for ice rescues on the lake. Although this number is significantly lower than the fire and medical calls they receive, Colby said, it's critical that the men on the scene are well trained in the proper rescue techniques and are able to perform them quickly.

"Typically with an ice rescue there's no flotation device on the victim and there has been a period of time where they've tried to pull themselves up," Colby said. "There's not a lot of time to get them out before they become hypothermic and physically exhausted from trying to keep themselves above water."

At least two ice rescue trainings are held Lake Quinsigamond each winter. It's these hours of training that Colby said will mean the diff erence between life and death in a real emergency.

"If we're not efficient and trained to get someone out quickly," he said, "then there's a much better chance that they'll slip back through the ice and it will become a recovery operation as opposed to a rescue."