STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – Firefighters and EMS workers are always looking for ways to better help their community. The first thing that comes to mind when people talk about firefighters is just that: people fighting fires, but the opposite can also be true.
The Stevens Point Fire Department now has access to a pair of Garmin devices that will help during water rescues.
The Garmin Locator technology should sound familiar to avid fishermen. It’s commonly used to pinpoint fish underwater and map out the terrain of any body of water.
The Stevens Point FD is hoping to use this device to make it easier and quicker to rescue people who have fallen into the water.
“Ideally, we’ve got 15 to 20, 25 minutes to recover a person if they’re underwater from drowning,” Stevens Point FD Lt. Ben Shultz said. “So, by having this equipment, if we can get there within that timely fashion and triangulate their location, we should be able to find them with relative ease.”
The Garmin devices show a long black line on the screen that tells the user there is something there. The line shows up larger for people than it does for fish, indicating to firefighters that a person is nearby.
“So at Stevens Point we can do swift water, ice water, and surface water rescues,” Lt. Shultz explained. “We can’t go underneath the water yet. With this equipment, we can look underneath the water, so when the dive team comes, we can say, ‘This is where we need to swim.’”
That dive team doesn’t come from the Stevens Point fire station, however.
Instead, they have to come from Marathon County, making it difficult for life-saving rescues. The time it takes the Marathon County Dive Team to get to emergencies in Portage County could mean life or death for those in the water.
We asked Lt. Shultz how quickly it takes the dive team to get there, if they have to drive from Marathon County.
“A good hour and a half because they’ve got to assemble their crew and wherever they are in Marathon County, get to the central location and get the trailer and bring it down here,” he said.
Shultz emphasized the importance of the Garmin device and the need for a Portage County Dive Team, saying, “I’ve done more water rescues than I’ve had to pull people out of burning buildings.”
He added the Garmin devices won’t help them to save people before the dive team gets there, but will help narrow the search area for when they arrive.
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