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Marine rescue training 2017
The Penticton Fire Department is dipping its toes back into the lakes ahead of their busy season for marine rescues, training on the personal watercraft on Tuesday.
With the weather warming up, the beaches and lakes will soon be in full use, meaning more marine rescues for the department, which late last summer acquired two small personal watercraft for use on Skaha Lake.
“The season’s coming up, so we wanted to get the guys out there and get them refreshed and get them back to using them,” said deputy chief Chris Forster.
A little rusty from not using the watercraft since last summer, Forster said the firefighters only needed a bit of time to regain their footing on the watercraft.
“This is going to be our first full season with them,” Forster said. “They’re really quite an asset that the chief’s brought to the department. The guys are really impressed with the speed and maneuvering ability of those machines.”
On top of getting some practice on the personal watercraft, Forster says the new boat should be arriving by the May long weekend, in time for the beach season to really kick off. But that will mean an extra bit of training for rescue crews who will need to get used to a new boat.
“It’s a lot larger boat, so it’s going to require training and upgraded training for the guys, because our other Zodiac was a smaller boat,” Forster said. “This one’s got a lot more functions and different maneuverabilities. You’ll see the guys out there quite a bit on that one.”
Forster says the department sees about two or three rescues per year, with more general distress calls coming in about six or eight times throughout the season.
