Training exercise turns into real-life water rescue in Shrewsbury
SHREWSBURY — An emergency training exercise on a lake turned into a real-life rescue Tuesday when a snowmobiler broke through the ice with his vehicle.
While members of the Shrewsbury Fire Department were conducting emergency training exercises Tuesday afternoon at Jordan Pond, someone attempted to ride his Polaris 700 XC snowmobile on the pond, according to Fire Capt. Sean Lawlor. The ice was noticeably thin and the 500-plus-pound snowmobile broke through the frozen surface.
The Fire Department was there with a hovercraft, a departmental rescue apparatus that glides over the ice without breaking it, Lawlor said.
The Fire Department purchased the hovercraft several years ago thanks to a $40,000 donation by local philanthropist Barbara H. Donahue, replacing the one she helped acquire 15 years earlier.
“We had the hovercraft on the ice with two gentlemen in rescue suits ready to go,” Lawlor said. “And then, one of my firefighters said, ‘Oh, look at this guy.’ And as we turned around, there’s a gentleman driving onto the ice and then he disappeared.”
With the snowmobiler’s disappearance, the training exercise turned into a rescue mission, Lawlor said.
“He’s in the water,” Lawlor said. “And then, I called for the gentlemen in hovercraft training to come over and perform an ice rescue and get him onshore.”
After the rescue, the snowmobile driver wanted to stay and lift the submerged snowmobile out of the icy water, Lawler said.
“We told him we needed him to get medical attention,” Lawler said. “There were no injuries. He got checked by the medics that were on the scene. They checked him out. He’s all set. He was clear to go back to his home.”
After the safe removal of the snowmobile driver, the Fire Department had to remove the snowmobile from the pond.
“If the environment is exposed to gasoline, oil or anything, we have to report it to DEP (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection),” Lawlor said. “If there are any types of leaks or anything like that, he would have to cover the cost, but we haven’t seen anything.”
The snowmobile, which was roughly 20 feet from shore with its windshield and steering column sticking out of the water, was dragged back to land.
If the Fire Department hadn't been at the pond doing rescue training, Lawler said the snowmobile going through the ice could have been a totally different, even tragic, situation.
“Not too many people look out their front door," Lawlor said. "He (the snowmobile driver) wasn’t calling out for help or anything. In that water with the conditions, you could have hyperthermia showing up as early as 30 seconds.”
Standing on the shoreline, Lawlor said it's not safe to go out on the ice.
“Despite whatever you see out there as far as the fire department training who have the specialized suits, you shouldn’t be out on the ice,” Lawler said.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Shrewsbury firefighters rescue snowmobiler on Jordan Pond
