Sundre's fire chief is looking forward to receiving a river rescue boat for the Sundre Fire Department this fall, after he again had to use his personal boat to perform a river rescue last week.
A family was stranded on the Red Deer River around 7 p.m. on July 5, after their dingy got caught in a log jam.
“Two adults and two children were stuck in a dingy on the Red Deer River and they didn't know where they were,” said fire chief Marty Butts. “They gave us locations that they thought they might be, but they were nowhere near where they thought they were.”
The dispatchers were able to pinpoint where the family was by using cell towers, because one of the adults was able to call for emergency services on their cellphone.
“Thank God they had coverage because if they didn't then it would have got dark and I don't know what would have happened,” he said.
Firefighters found the family about half of a kilometre upstream of Sundre. Butts said the family was exhausted because they had been out on the river for most of the day, and they almost popped their dingy on the log jam. He believes the children are between the ages six and nine.
He was able to use his personal boat, load them onto the boat and drop them off on the bridge, where they called their family to pick them up.
“It was a bad thing that turned into a good thing because it could have got dark and they had two kids and the dingy might have popped and they could have got sucked up under very quickly with this log jam they were caught up in,” he said.
“I'm glad to see our riverboat, we got approved for it, and this is one more example where it was needed and it will be nice when it shows up.”
The fire department should be receiving the boat this fall, and it will be ready to go for the spring, he said.
Town of Sundre officials are receiving $96,175 through a provincial flood readiness grant program. The boat will cost at least $40,000.
Town officials applied for the funding immediately after the flood in June 2013, according to Dave Dubauskas, the town's chief administrative officer. They asked for additional items in February and were approved in March.
Included in the funding is a sandbagging machine, as well as some items that needed replenishing after last year's flood, like rescue ropes, life-jackets and dry suits.
“We're training all our guys up with swift water rescue and ice rescue and we have a Zodiak and an RDC boat but they're deflatable boats with no motor on them… this is kind of one of the last items that we're needing,” said Butts.
There are certain requirements for the boat to meet the needs of the Sundre Fire Department.
“We just can't go buy a boat off a lot. It's a unique boat because it's a jet boat, so it doesn't have a prop on the back. It has got to be reinforced on the bottom for the abuse that they take on the low shallow rivers that we will be using it on,” he explained.
“And it has to have radios and lights and all that stuff in a rescue, compartments for all our gear and stuff.”
