By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
January 27, 2007
Clad in an insulated plastic suit which kept him warm and buoyant, Greenwich firefighter Steve Lanzarone floated in the frigid Mianus River to help his fellow firefighters practice their cold water rescue skills.
In the face of brutal subzero cold, eight firefighters took turns wading into the Mianus River off River Road and dragging each other to safety using specially designed ropes fitted with flotation devices.
All 107 career firefighters received the training over the past week.
"That was good," Lanzarone said afterward.
Yesterday the high temperature in Greenwich was 21 degrees, with wind chills dipping to 13 below, according to the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y..
Firefighter Mark Dawson said they considered calling off the water rescue drill, given the weather, before deciding they could still train safely.
"When do people fall in the water? When it's cold -- we're going to train today," said Dawson, who instructed the firefighters and directed the exercise.
The firefighters practiced their aim tossing the rope devices called "throw bags," Dawson said, an important skill because firefighters have only a short amount of time to get the victims the rope before hypothermia robs them of the strength to grip the lifeline.
Dawson said firefighters throw the lines upstream of the victim so it will float toward them.
"Ideally, you want to be able to pull somebody out because the last thing you want to do is put somebody in the water," Dawson said.
When ice separates firefighters from a victim, they crawl across it on their bellies using handheld spikes to grip the ice and pull themselves across, Dawson said.
Firefighters refreshed their memories about how to measure the strength and thickness of ice by its appearance, Dawson said, a method that is not always accurate.
Dawson said new ice, the strongest kind of ice, is clear or black in appearance, as opposed to the weaker layered ice, which has thawed and refrozen several times, creating fissures that can break.
"The rule about ice is you don't walk on it, you crawl across," Dawson said. "You don't trust ice until you're on it."
Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Nixon said the course was important because cold water rescues are few and far between.
Dawson said ice rescues in Greenwich often involve dogs, and on at least one occasion, a horse.
Last February, firefighters rescued a 13-year-old Frost Road girl who plunged through cracked pond ice, Nixon noted.
"With the weather now and some of the streams and ponds freezing over, it's when we experience these types of incidents," Nixon said. "So it's good to refamiliarize ourselves with the equipment."
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.