Firefighters Train For Ice Rescues

Firefighters from the Niles and Park Ridge fire departments and the North Maine Fire Protection District got training in ice rescues over the past few weeks.

About 150 firefighters--including approximately 45 from the Niles Fire Department--trained on four different types of rescues, three of which involved immersing themselves in the freezing water.

"It really wasn't unpleasant," said District Chief Bob Greiner of the Niles Fire Department. "The suits are insulated and you really don't feel discomfort."

The firefighters gathered at the retention pond at Bay Colony Apartments near Potter Road and Emerson in unincorporated Des Plaines.

"Because of the warmer weather, it was good at simulating springtime conditions where someone might be walking and fall through the ice," Grainer said.

All of the firefighters got to train on four rescues:

• a self-rescue in which they had to climb out of the water using their arms and legs
• a self-rescue using ice picks, which came with the rescue suit.
• standing on land or ice and pulling someone out with a rope
• tying rope around themselves, getting into the water and looping the same rope under the victim's arms, then signaling to a crew on land to pull out both victim and rescuer.

The trainer also taught them a technique for moving around on thin ice. It involved lying on your belly and pulling yourself forward with ice picks, Grainer said. Lying on your belly disperses your weight across more surface area and reduces the chances you'll fall through, he added.

The techniques taught during the training are surface rescues and  are used when victims have fallen into water but are not completely submerged, Greiner said. When a victim is completely submerged, dive teams have to conduct the rescue. In an emergency, dive teams from Park Ridge, Evanston or other towns which have bodies of water and thus dive teams, would respond. The Niles Fire Department does not have a dive team.

"Niles doesn't have any big lakes," Greiner observed.

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