Tie one on

Yup, I'm adding a new icon for a new class of response: Water Rescue

In my firehouse we staff an ALS Engine, Truck, a rescue boat and rescue water craft, meaning most of the folks here are certified rescue swimmers and take their roles very seriously.  Most of the dispatches for these highly specialized units are in the news and easily identifiable, so if a person is rescued, chances are you will not read about it here due to privacy concerns.

But what if there is no victim?  Then there is no privacy.

Been tied up all day?  So were we.  Then, when I read the screen on this call I had to scratch my head.  Not only had the caller actually called for this, but it made it through the system as a code 3 water rescue.

THE EMERGENCY

A caller has reported, "A neck tie can be seen in a pond and there could be a body attached to it."

THE ACTION

I just completed my class so my role on this job would be dock side and assist the boat in...wait a sec...did they say...pond?

The engine officer wisely chooses to respond to the reported location in the fire engine instead of deploying the rescue boat and we arrive to a very large tourist crowd at a very popular tourist attraction.  Lights and sirens.

Because of some of the key words in the caller's statement, we also have a heavy rescue unit, ambulance, Chiefs and a truck responding as well.  Lights and sirens.  To the pond.  For the neck tie.

As we arrive our swimmer is ready to deploy if necessary and I grab a ceiling hook because I always like to have a tool when I leave the engine.

In slightly dirty 2 foot deep water we can see the bottom of a neck tie floating and the remainder of it resting, very much without a neck, on the shallow bottom.

It was in easy reach with the hook so I grabbed it and pulled it in.

"Anything else down there?" The Chief asks.

"No, Sir," I reply, "I can see the bottom and there's nothing there."

"Drag it around just to be sure." He tells me and I oblige.

The caller is understandably embarrassed and tells us something we are starting to hear more and more, "Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Absolutely, Sir.  That's why we're here."  In that moment I was part of the problem of mis-information of the public as to the purpose and abilities of the modern fire service and EMS resources.

But then again there is no other resource in my community that deals with dead bodies in shallow ponds.

Or is there?