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Ice Rescue Training Exercise held at Jackfish Lake
Ice Rescue Training Exercise held at Jackfish Lake
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
A total of 20 firefighters from the Myrnam, Two Hills, Derwent and Hairy Hill fire departments participated in an ice rescue training exercise on Jackfish Lake Feb. 24.
Myrnam Fire Chief John Fedoriuk knows there’s no such thing as being over prepared. Observing the training exercise from a safe distance, Fedoriuk also remarked that, “It’s better to be prepared and not need it than to be not prepared and need it.”
Fedoriuk said it’s good to get the younger firefighters in the water learning new skills. He added, “This is a new challenge they’ve accepted and are doing well at it.”
Participant Brett Bannister, who joined the Myrnam Fire Department only two weeks ago, was very excited to receive the training. “I’m a hands on learner.” She noted that, “Its good training to have. If there’s an actual emergency on the ice then we’d be able to perform a rescue successfully.”
Derwent Fire Department Captain Ezra Noster also shared his thoughts on the training exercise. As always, it’s a lot of fun to jump in the lake and splash around. It’s good information to retain and renew, and keep on top of. I’ve been on the department in Derwent for 14 years. We’ve never needed to do an ice rescue, but it doesn’t mean we won’t need to. It’s better to have the skills and be practiced up than be in trouble when you get there.”
Myrnam Fire Department Captain Jeff Rayner instructed the training. He, took a certified training course along with several other firefighters from Two Hills County a couple of years ago. Rayner said it’s a good course to have as they teach firefighters about the suits, how they float and how to get air out of the suits so you can control yourself more in the water.
As well, “They teach you safety skills, how to get out of the water on your own with picks and without. They teach us knots so that if you don’t have a like safety rope to throw around them you can make one out of rope and clip on a carabiner to pull them out.”
Even though the training exercise was a refresher, since they had one last year, Rayner said about 90 per cent of the participants in the training exercise had never been in the water with the suits on. “Today was really fun because there were so many people who had never had the suits on and been in the water. It was good experience for them.”
Brad Straty, County of Two Hills Interim Fire Services Coordinator, explained, “This started probably about five years ago when the County of Two Hills decided it was going to start aerating Jackfish Lake again for the purpose of having stocked trout in the lake. So, we as fire departments saw the need to have the capability of rescuing someone if they ever did fall into the water.
So, that’s what we pushed for from the first responders’ side, making sure that we had the capabilities to do the rescue. So, working in conjunction with the county that’s how it all came about.
Three years ago the County paid for ice rescue training and we had all five departments partake in the ice rescue training and now it’s just a refresher to make sure everyone has an idea of what they’ve got to do if we’ve got to go out on the ice and this is an opportunity to team build. Having all five departments working together at any given time; that’s why we do this, to make sure everybody’s on the same page when we get called out together.”
