St. Paul Fire Department work on ice rescue skills

Your St. Paul Firefighters were dressed to get wet recently as they continually train to ensure their skills are maintained to the highest degree.

Training was completed on Friday, November 26, as  Crew 3 honed their skills at ice rescue, while Crew 2 went through structural search techniques at the St. Paul Fire Department training facility.

Trevor J. Kotowich is the Fire Chief of the St. Paul Fire Department.

“The training was part of our regular Friday night training programs,” Fire Chief Kotowich told Lakeland Connect. “This crew worked on ice rescue skills, while another crew worked at our training facility on search and rescue techniques, while the last crew remained at the hall and worked on forcible entry techniques with a prop borrowed from the BRFA.”

As part of their Levels of Service, St. Paul Fire Department provides Ice Rescue to the Technician Level.

“Skills maintenance is an extremely important objective of any fire department,” Fire Chief Kotowich said.

Some of the skills the firefighters will focus on are:

• Safe methods for approaching weak ice
• Rescuing victims in the water far from the ice edge
• Reaching tools and techniques
• Knots, anchors and basic haul systems.

Although Winter is around the corner as temperatures plummet this doesn’t mean the training will stop as crews braved the icy water on Friday night in the fishing pond in the Town of St. Paul.

“The suits we use will definitely keep us dry, but not necessarily warm,” Fire Chief Kotowich concluded.