JERUSALEM TWP., Ohio (WTVG) – The Jerusalem Township and Toledo Fire and Rescue departments conducted ice rescue training exercises on Lake Erie Saturday, practicing various techniques to prepare for potential winter water emergencies.
The departments spent the day running through different scenarios at Maumee Bay State Park to improve their rescue capabilities on the ice.
“Medical emergencies happen,” said Jim Wolfe, the deputy chief of the Jerusalem Twp. Fire Department. “We don’t know when they are going to happen right? So this is giving all the teams the availability to look at the equipment they have and look at what other departments are doing – best practices – and we get to talk about different scenarios we have had in our own jurisdiction.”
The departments practiced several different approaches during the training session. Jerusalem Fire demonstrated the ‘sling technique,’ where a sling flotation device is wrapped around the victim to pull them out of the water.
The technique allows rescuers to get victims out of the ice as quickly as possible.
“Having that time to collaborate with everybody, it really helps us to learn from other jurisdictions that have a little bit more exposure to it,” Wolfe said.
Some rescue scenarios involved distances of 500 yards, while others extended as far as two miles out on the ice.
The fire department reminds the public that no ice is safe ice.
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