Western Pa. EMS companies hold cold-water rescue training

Twenty-nine degrees with a chance of snow is no one’s idea of good swimming weather, unless you’re a polar bear (the literal kind, not the plunging-for-charity kind).

But for three regional EMS companies, Saturday morning was the ideal time to practice several rescue scenarios at Indian Lake in North Huntingdon, using a variety of techniques and tools.

“Today was actually supposed to be a big gathering of 20 different companies, training at Northmoreland Park,” said Shane Spielvogle, executive director for North Huntingdon EMS/Rescue. “But with the pandemic, we figured it was best to break it up into smaller groups.”

On Saturday, North Huntingdon rescue workers were joined by their counterparts in Scottdale, as well as Baldwin in Allegheny County. Groups were spaced about 150 feet apart, roughly 25 feet from the shore.

“We have about three-and-a-half, four inches of ice,” Spielvogle said. “We’ve been watching the ice for a week or so, and with this sustained cold weather, we’re in good shape.”

If he’s being honest, though, Spielvogle said he prefers the ice to be a little sketchy.

“The first thing we’re practicing is self-rescue,” he said. “Ice rescue is a very dangerous, technical rescue — if the situation is that someone has fallen through, then the conditions are already not good.”

Every person who goes into the water is wearing a harness that keeps them tethered to a colleague on shore.

“That’s standard in water rescue,” Spielvogle said.

The groups also spent time training how to properly pull a victim out of the water and haul them to shore, and also how to perform a similar rescue from inside an inflatable boat.