The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Icy rescues for Coast Guard, Cleveland Fire
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Cleveland Fire Department met Feb. 13 to perform joint training exercises that focused on cold water rescues.
The real-life simulations were conducted along the Downtown Cleveland harbor docks off of East 9th street. Performed while the region was under a high wind warning with below freezing temperatures, the two organizations stepped onto the ice to take turns taking the plunge.
Cleveland Fire Department’s public information officer, Michael Norman, detailed the various subdivisions on hand.
“We have our dive team down here, which are our technical rescue team,” he said. “They’re the ones that man our quick response boat, Marine 17. They do a lot of dive training, a lot of water rescue training.”
Also present were Ladder Companies 31 and 23, the latter of which is responsible for rescue calls for the heavily frequented Edgewater Beach which rests along the city’s western edge.
Time is of the essence for these first responders. Thanks to the versatile functionality of the Cleveland department’s dive suits they are able to suit up while en route to a rescue call. Fire Captain Paul Legeza says it takes approximately only one minute to slip into one of the yellow insulated dive suits.
He broke down the 1-10-1 rule that is critical for cold water rescues.
“For the first minute during an ice rescue the victim experiences ice shock,” he said. “Your body goes into total shock and your heart rate goes up. After one minute you can control your breathing and start getting your wits about you. At that point you have 10 minutes of purposeful movement where you could kick, swim, or possibly pull yourself out at the point.
“After 10 minutes your body becomes hypothermic and your muscles quit working. At that point you have about one hour before they succumb fully to hypothermia. That’s our window to get to them.”
Legeza warns that just getting out of the water is not enough to halt the advances of hypothermia.
“Say the surface water is around 34 degrees, once your on the ice you have air temperature and wind chill, and you’re soaking wet,” he said. “You can quickly go from being to cold to really hypothermic.”
Legeza goes on to detail the urgency placed in quickly raising the rescue victim’s body temperature.
“We have to get them off the ice as soon as possible,” he said.”There are survival blankets that the Coast Guard will wrap them in which helps during the transition from the water to getting them to our squad where we can get them warmed up. It’ll be hot blanket, warm IVs, we may even just throw them in a hot bath if possible but it all needs to be done within an hour.”
Cleveland Fire works alongside the U. S. Coast Guard through their 1150 E. 9th St. offices in a number of joint training exercises throughout the year.