Unfortunately, it has been a busy season for the volunteer rescue squads who monitor the Housatonic River.
So far this summer two young people have hurt themselves while using rope swings on the river’s rocky shores. A 32-year-old woman died in the river Sunday. Shelton police believe it was suicide.
Those are reasons why last Thursday’s water rescue training near Pink House Cove in Derby was so important.
About a dozen emergency personnel from Derby’s Storm Ambulance and Rescue Corps and Shelton’s Echo Hose Fire Department participated in a training exercise to teach newer members how to rescue injured people from the river and get them safely aboard a rescue boat.
Get patient securely into stokes basket. Guide basket toward boat. Attach basket to wench. Crank pulley to raise patient. Secure patient in boat.
Sounds simple, right?
“It’s not as easy as you think,” said David Lenart. “Everything is moving. You’ve got to pick up a 100 pound person from something that’s moving (the river) onto something that’s moving (the boat).”
Derby’s Mike Witek led the exercise, calmly walking the volunteers through a scenario in front of a rope swing on the Derby side of the river.
Click the video to see a glimpse of the training, which lasted more than an hour last Thursday.
Plucking an injured person from a spot on the Housatonic is tricky. Just getting out of a rescue boat close is wrought with danger, because what you can’t see under the water — rocks — can certainly hurt you, Witek told the crew.
The toughest job during the training seemed to go to Derby firefighter Brian Mezzapelle.
He maneuvered Derby’s 19-foot Carolina Skiff to pick up “Butch,” the headless mannequin the rescuers used for practice.
Mezzapelle had much to track — the wind, other boats, rocks, tree branches, not to mention the people in the water near the boat.
“Slow is good,” Witek advised. “Slow and steady.”
The rope swing on the Derby side of the river, by the way, looked insanely dangerous. Lenart said cutting the ropes is a battle all summer long, as they are put back up as soon as workers from the city’s Department of Public Works remove them.
Lenart said Derby probably responds to three or four rope swing injuries a year. Often, the victim loses his or her nerve, hanging onto the rope after it is fully extended over the river.
They let go as the rope approaches shore, which sends the victim into the shallow water with ankle-snapping ferocity.
The two rope-swing related injuries this summer have not been pretty. One victim, injured at the very location where the firefighters trained, suffered a deep leg gash. The other victim, injured on the lower Housy in Shelton, was knocked unconscious and broke her wrist.
Thursday’s training was the fourth time this summer the two fire departments teamed for river-related training.
