STAFF REPORT
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RED OAK – The Red Oak City Council recently recognized the city’s Fire Rescue Department for a swift-water rescue they took part in earlier this year.
In late January, Red Oak Fire Rescue responded to a mutual-aid request to Maypearl for a swift-water rescue involving two victims who had been swept from a roadway by high water while riding a side-by-side ATV.
Truck 181, Rescue 181, and Battalion 181 arrived and found the victims stranded on a log about 30-feet from the roadway.
Victims were separated by two bodies of water and difficult terrain.
Fire Rescue crews deployed an inflatable rescue raft and carried it through floodwater and across dry ground to reach the victims.
It was reported the “firefighters conducted a current assessment and determined a controlled downstream lowering of the raft could be safely performed.
Firefighter Fain boarded the raft and was lowered to the victims while three upstream personnel managed the tether line from the submerged roadway.
Fain fitted both victims with personal flotation devices and assisted them onto the raft one at a time, while other crew members safely retrieved the raft back against the current.
The victims were moved across the remaining terrain and transferred for medical assistance.
