Cazenovia-area emergency crews, working with the Willow Bank Yacht Club, last week held a large-scale water rescue training event during which four different yet connected rescue scenarios were played out on the grounds of the club.
The training included a simulated boat accident off the shores of the yacht club, during which rescue crews had to extricate a patient from a boat and bring the victim to shore. While this was occurring — and unknown to rescue crews participating in the practice — another scenario unfolded during which a “mother” who was watching the boat rescue “lost” her 2-year-old child in the club’s swimming area. Rescue crews had to find the missing child and bring him to shore. As all this happened, rescue crews backing a trailer down to the water to tow a boat out were distracted by the missing child and backed over a bystander, who was then trapped under the machine. Rescue crews then had to extricate that victim from the scene.
“It was absolutely great practice,” said Rick Macheda, captain of the Cazenovia Fire Department rescue squad, who organized the training event. “It was great for our people — we didn’t give anybody a head’s up [about the multiple scenarios]; we sprung it on them all of a sudden… It was all realistic — all of that could have happened.”
Macheda said including the Willow Bank Yacht Club and its lifeguards to the training was an excellent addition because in the event of a real emergency they would be the ones notifying both fire and police. In fact, yacht club officials appreciated the drill so much they have asked that another drill be scheduled at the yacht club next year as well, Macheda said.
In addition to the approximately 20 fire department rescue personnel and the dozen yacht club lifeguards, other participants included Cazenovia Police Department members using their lake patrol boat and members of CAVAC.
Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes said this was the first time all the different agencies had done such a training all together. “It went well,” Hayes said. “Rick [Macheda] and I will talk next week to see what we need to do better and iron out the kinks before, God forbid, one of those scenarios do happen.”
Hayes said all the agencies hope to conduct a few more training scenarios throughout the rest of this year as weather permits.
