Rescues

Daring Rescues made in Albany & Schoharie Counties:
Averill Park's Hovercraft Saves Five

Jan 20, 1996: Sudden rises in temperature caused record breaking snow cover to suddenly melt across New York State. In many counties, States of Emergency were declared as rapidly rising streams flooded highways, homes, and neighborhoods in upstate New York.

Averill Park firemen, on duty since 3:30AM of Jan. 19th, responding to pumpouts and rescues, were called at 8:12PM, Jan 19, for mutual aid assistance to rescue a mother, father and their 3 month old infant, trapped in their flooded home for several hours in Coeymans, Albany county. Averill Park responded with Rescue One, carrying nine personnel, and Hover One. Arriving on scene at 9:07PM, Hover One, piloted through swiftly moving, debris laden water, in below freezing temperatures, completed a successful rescue of all three people in under 20 minutes.

Before leaving the Albany County scene, Rescue One was contacted by NYS Police Command, and requested to respond to Breakabeen, Schoharie County, to attempt a rescue of two men who had been trapped in a tree surrounded by raging flood waters for over ten hours. All efforts to rescue the two men by boat and State Police helicopter had failed.

Rescue One/Hover One, responding over ice-covered roads, made the journey from Coeymans to Breakabeen in just under two hours. Once Rescue One and the Hovercraft were on scene, the successful rescue of both men was made in about fifteen minutes. Both men were suffering badly from exposure and hypothermia.

At about noon on the twentieth, Averill Park FD was once again asked to respond out of county. This time, Hover One was requested by the Schuyler Heights FD to aid in the evacuation of the Village One Apartments in Menands, situated in the Hudson River flood plain in Albany County. The river waters had risen quickly, trapping many elderly or infirm residents in their apartments. Rescue One/Hover One responded, and succeeded in evacuating ten persons and two dogs from the apartments.

Left: Averill Park's Hover One evacuates a man with medical problems from the Village One Apartments in Menands NY.

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Maritime Rescue Division

The function of this Division of the Pewaukee Fire Department is to operate the Hovercraft and to provide fire/rescue services on Pewaukee Lake and other waterways. The balance of the Department will provide necessary support services to help them accomplish their mission, as needed.

As the rest of the department was affected by firefighters being promoted to full time fire service careers so was the maritime rescue team. We have gone through a rebuilding year on the team. Our daytime team has gained the most, as some of our best pilots have been taken on full time. This meant the promotion of surface swimmers to pilots and a training program that is on going. We have 4 pilots that staff days, and 7 pilots that are available at night and on the weekends. There are also 12 dedicated surface swimmers that are on the team. The maritime pilots are encouraged to get between ½ and 1 hr. of flight time per month. This is also when the new pilots receive most of there training time. We have found that our training and maintenance programs have lead to zero damage to any of our equipment. With the onset of the early cold last year we were well staffed for any maritime call. With the strange weather patterns that we encountered in 2000, late ice, early thaw, then early ice we had the potential for many problems that never did materialize. While our team is unique with the use of the only rescue hovercraft in southeastern WI., we will assist anyone that requests our services. We continue to train the department as a whole on how to do a water rescue the " old fashion way". Throw –Row-and Go. The department is equipped to do it either way.

While we are referred to as a surface rescue team, we have an automatic mutual aide agreement with the Town of Delafield dive rescue team. A unified command has been established to handle these incidents and has worked well when needed. Maritime calls become a huge EMS response, usually with two command centers. The actual command at the scene and the Maritime command at the launch sites. The unified command system has helped to eliminate confusion that arises with this setup. Thanks to everyone that has taken on the extra commitment of the Maritime Rescue Team.

The Division is commanded by Division Chief Pete Rhode. D/C Rhode is also in charge of operations within the Department.

The Pewaukee Fire Department took delivery of a Hovercraft manufactured by Hovercraft America of Germantown, Wisconsin in March of 1996. It was donated to the Department by our local Rotary Club. They did fund raisers, with the assistance of the Fire Department, to raise about $30,000 to purchase the Craft.

The training required to fly the Craft had started in the previous summer. Additional pilots were trained as soon as we took delivery. It takes about 20 hours of flying time to be considered a pilot on one of our rescue teams. Additional training was necessary to become familiar with operations in different types of weather and with different surfaces over which the craft could be flown. It is able to operate over land, water, mud, ice and snow. Each surface that the craft is flown over will affect the operation and speed.

The Hovercraft has changed the operations used by the Department when doing water or ice rescues. It is now possible to quickly and safely get from shore to any location on our lake, which is approximately 1 mile by 5 miles. In the past, it could take a long time with ropes, ladders and boats to get to a victim who had fallen thru the ice. Now we can fly out to them in a matter of minutes.

The Hovercraft has affectionately been named "The DarleyCraft", given the affection that we have for our front line engines.

Anyone wanting more information about this equipment or its operation, contact Chief Pinter, Asst Chief Bierce or Division Chief Rhode at the Central Fire Station, 262-523-4616.

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Fire crews practice for ice emergencies

By Jim Collar
of the Northwestern
Even the thinnest ice cover is too tempting for some who hope to fish or snowmobile.

Investigators in Rhinelander this week pulled a body from Dorothy Lake that was identified as a snowmobiler missing since Dec. 26.

A 69-year-old man from Jefferson County was in critical condition Thursday after falling through the ice on Lake Mills.

The Oshkosh Fire Department is getting ready for similar situations here. "We were trying to predict what day the first call would come," said Fire Lt. Jeff MacDonald. "Most calls usually happen after the ice first freezes and then again early in the spring."

The fire department on Wednesday hauled out Winnebago County’s hovercraft for a few trial runs to prepare for possible emergency responses on frozen waterways. The vehicle, which can glide across land, ice or water on a small bed of air, typically is used for ice rescues five or more times during a winter season.

Firefighters took turns operating the vehicle through spins, attempting different speeds and gliding to stops. Each maneuver could be critical if someone slips through the ice, MacDonald said.

There hasn’t been an ice emergency in Winnebago County this winter, but firefighters expect to have an emergency sooner than later.

Most local lakes still have open spots, though many portions are safe for snowmobiles or four-wheelers, said Don Herman, a local ice expert and member of the Otter Street Fishing Club.

The open spots can create danger for those out on the lake. Those who take vehicles of any kind onto the ice are taking a risk and need to exercise extreme caution, he said. "I noticed some guys out fishing and they had their cars out on the lake," Herman said. "I don’t recommend it, but they were out there."

Herman runs a business that specializes in recovering sunken vehicles.

He said ice thickness right now ranges from 4 to 10 inches on Lake Winnebago. Most vehicles aren’t safe on the ice unless there is at least one foot of ice, Herman said.

Firefighters are hopeful they can keep the hovercraft on its trailer this season, but they’ll stay ready knowing it’s likely they will need the machine.

Jim Collar: (920) 426-6676 or jcollar@smgpo.gannett.com.

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3 Die In Mishap On Lake Erie Ice
Anglers drive into open water, drown

By Erica Blake
And Kelly Lecker
Blade Staff Writer


Ottawa County officials leave a plane Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001, in Port Clinton, Ohio, that carried the bodies of three men whose all-terrain vehicle fell through the ice in Lake Erie. The bodies were taken to the Ottawa County Regional Airport for the coroner to examine. Killed were Stanley Puster, 60, of Lakeville and Howard Taylor, 73, and Robert Shammo, 65, both of Shreve, authorities said. (AP Photo/Fremont News Messenger, Ben French)

MIDDLE BASS ISLAND - Three fishermen disoriented by fog and blinding snow lost their way to a group of ice shanties on Lake Erie yesterday and drove their all-terrain vehicle into open water.

It's uncertain when the men disappeared; the first sign of trouble on the ice was a lone cooler bobbing in the water and vehicle tracks leading to broken ice.

The man who found the cooler called police at 2:28 p.m. Diving teams were on the ice by 3:21 p.m., said Ottawa County chief deputy Mark Putnam.

Minutes later, the first diver found all three men in 10 feet of water about 15 feet from the four-wheeler, which still had a trailer attached. The men had fallen into a hole roughly the size of four parking spaces. They were found with their fishing equipment.

The men were identified as Howard Taylor, 73, and Robert Shammo, 65, both of Shreve, Ohio, and Stanley Puster, 60, of Lakeville, Ohio.

The men were found 1/4-mile northeast of Sugar Island between Middle Bass Island and North Bass Island.

Diver Roger Garn from the Ottawa County sheriff's office said the water where the men were found was clear. It didn't appear that they were trapped under the ice, but more likely couldn't make it out of the frigid water. They did not have floatation devices.

Authorities said the men could not have survived in the water more than a couple of minutes.

Ice fishermen and rescue workers tried to figure out what happened. A diver speculated the victims might have thought they were following flags used to mark trails on solid ice but were looking at markers in holes that fishermen no longer were using.

Pat Chrysler, an ice fishing guide who knows the men, said they were about 11/2 miles east off the path to their destination - a group of about 100 ice shanties off Rattlesnake Island. He believes they got confused and wandered off the ice.

''We traced their tracks in the snow,'' Mr. Chrysler said. ''They were en route to their shanties that were north of Rattlesnake Island and they got twisted around because of the snow - it was snowing like crazy. They ended up going about a mile and a half east and rode out into open water.''

The National Weather Service in Cleveland reported wind, snow, and cold in the morning and early afternoon around Middle Bass Island. Snow fell throughout that time, accumulating 1 to 2 inches and combining with fog to limit visibility.

"It's kind of hard to say what the visibility was out there, but on land some visibility dropped to half a mile at times," said meteorologist Frank Kieltyka. "So it's possible it could have been even lower on the ice."

Dale Burris was on his dock outside his Middle Bass Island home when he saw something sticking out of the ice in the distance.

''I got on my hovercraft and headed in that direction. When I got there, I saw a big plastic cooler near a hole in the ice. At that point, I knew something was wrong. I knew someone was in the lake. So I headed back and started calling around to get help,'' he said.

Mr. Taylor owned a cottage on Middle Bass Island, where the men started out. Mr. Chrysler talked to that man's family after the accident.

"This is sad. Really sad," he said.

The three men flew to Middle Bass Island on Monday morning to fish. Authorities believe they headed out yesterday morning to the ice shanty they had on the lake.

The men's bodies were taken to the hangar at the Erie-Ottawa Regional Airport just east of Port Clinton and later were taken to the Lucas County coroner's office, where autopsies will be conducted.

Rescue workers congregated at the hangar while they tried to sort out what happened.

The ice under the shanties at Rattlesnake Island is about 13 inches deep, according to fishermen.

''It's a great spot for ice fishing,'' Mr. Chrysler said. "Where our shanties are sitting - and we have 100 shanties out there - we have 13 inches of ice. As far as we're concerned, the ice is in good shape.''

But the ice on much of the rest of Lake Erie is deceptively thin, authorities said.

Warming temperatures and currents caused by heavy winds have broken up the ice to the point where it is not safe to be on most parts of Lake Erie, said Marblehead Coast Guard Petty Officer Jason Gale.

"We can't tell anybody to stay off the ice, but it is very unsafe," he said. "We have open water from the station to the islands."

The Coast Guard is not able to patrol constantly the area around the islands, officials said.

Anglers still have a few shanties out on the ice, but most of the lake is empty as the ice cracks up and melts.

Petty Officer Gale said even when fishermen are on solid ice, they should take cell phones, flares, and life jackets in case something happens.