RRFRD practices swift-water rescue techniques

Firefighter/EMT Dave Hoeksema jumps into the waters of the Rio Grande on a float-board as members of the Rio Rancho Fire Rescue Department Heavy Technical Rescue Team held its annual swift-water refresher training Tuesday. (COURTESY PAUL BEARCE)

As the season of higher flows in rivers and arroyos begins, the Rio Rancho Fire Rescue Department is brushing up on swift-water rescue skills.

Tuesday, the department’s Heavy Technical Rescue Team held a refresher course on those skills in the classroom and then practiced in the Rio Grande. They’ll train the rest of the department next month, said Deputy Fire Chief Paul Bearce.

“We tend to try and do it the first part of the spring, due to the fact that as the runoff comes, the danger increases for our area and we want to be ready in case a deployment occurs,” he said of the training.

Even though the snowpack and thus the runoff are lower than usual this year, Bearce said, the runoff still heightens flows enough to make rivers and arroyos more dangerous. Summer thunderstorms, even if they’re not in the immediate area, can cause perilous flash floods.

In addition to swift-water rescue, the Heavy Technical Rescue Team does trench, confined space, structural collapse and high-angle rope rescues, plus hazardous materials response.

The team was formed with a New Mexico Department of Homeland Security grant after a local teenage boy, Corbin Hayes, was swept away in the river and drowned in 2009.

Before, fire department personnel could stand on the bank and throw ropes to anyone in the river, but the grant provided the equipment and skills training for them to go into the water after people. Swift-water rescuers have to understand ropes and knots, boat operations, water flows and speed, strategies and, at the highest level, swimming in swift water with protective gear.

“It’s extremely important for our guys to have this equipment and training to handle these calls,” said team member Capt. Jonathan Bueschel.

Even with heavy technical rescue teams in Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Corrales and Santa Fe, Rio Rancho needs its own to decrease response times, especially with the Rio Grande running through the city, he said.

“We’re kind of isolated out here,” Bueschel said.

Bearce said the team handles four or five swift-water rescue calls per year, either in the city or in other jurisdictions.

Last March, the team was called to the Jemez Mountains when several members of a family were stranded across the Jemez River from their vehicle.

The group — and adult, a teenager and two children — became lost hiking and about dark came to the river at a place where it was running more swiftly than where they crossed. Rather than try to find their way back in the dark, they called out to nearby residents, who called county responders, who in turn asked the Rio Rancho team for help.

Bearce said the team ferried the group across the river.

Bueschel said swift-water rescue training is very intense. It’s a check to make sure the trainee is really willing and able to handle the job.

“Water’s the ultimate equalizer,” he said. “It’s a humbling thing,” and en trained rescuers can’t control the water.

When the team trained Tuesday, Bearce said, members retrieved orange barrels that had somehow been caught in the middle of the river. Even when the water is chest deep, he said, it has a lot of force, and the team members could have been swept away if they didn’t have the training to handle it.

“It doesn’t take much water to actually lift somebody off their feet,” he said.

Swift-water safety tips:

• Avoid being caught in swift water:
• Don’t play in arroyos or be caught in them if there’s a nearby thunderstorm, even if it’s not in the immediate area.
• Remember that water can appear slow and shallow, but still have a lot of force. It doesn’t take much water to sweep away people or vehicles.
• Don’t try to drive through water running across the road if you don’t know its depth.

If you’re swept away:

• Point your feet downstream and float on your back with the current until it slows. Then swim to the bank.
• Don’t stand up in swift-moving water. Your foot could become caught, with possibly deadly results.
• Avoid piles of debris in the river. The water could trap you against them and pull you under.
• If you’re in a vehicle and it’s stable, stay in it and call for help.
• If the vehicle is being swept away, get out and stay out of its path.

Source: Paul Bearce