Quick-response watercraft keeps Manitoba firefighters prepared
It was an urgent situation, with an extra degree of difficulty.
Last spring, fire chief Andy Thiessen and his crew at the Morden Fire and Rescue agency received a call about a cyclist who’d been riding along a nearby lake and fallen into the water. Having broken his leg in the fall, the cyclist was immersed in a remote corner of the lake, unable to move and barely able to keep his head above water. And with no watercraft of their own, Thiessen’s first responders would need to commandeer a private boat to save a life.
“We did not feel very good with this kind of response. But we had to do what we could to get him out of his predicament,” recalls.
While the rescue turned out to be successful, Thiessen says the incident highlighted the need for change.
“If we’d had our own boat, we could have reached the cyclist sooner and more safely. It was a piece of equipment we’d been thinking about for some time. But we just needed a helping hand to get it,” says Thiessen.
That helping hand came this past spring, in the form of a $10,000 grant from Enbridge’s Safe Community program. Combining the grant with funding raised through the Morden Area Foundation, the department purchased in June a five-meter (16-foot) inflatable Zodiac boat with a 25-horsepower engine.
Thiessen’s volunteer-based organization provides fire protection and emergency services to a 465-square-kilometre (180-square-mile) section of south-central Manitoba. The crew of 35 responds to incidents of all stripes, including water emergencies.
“The boat we’ve purchased is designed for carrying out open-water rescues, and is a welcome piece of equipment,” says Thiessen of the four-person boat.
Enbridge is committed to enriching the lives of people in the communities near our pipelines and facilities. Our proposed $7.5-billion Line 3 Replacement Program, the largest project in Enbridge history, will present economic opportunities in communities across the prairies as we replace one of our mainline right-of-way crude oil pipelines from Hardisty, Alta., to Superior, Wis. In Manitoba, the L3R program is expected to generate more than $108 million in tax revenue during its construction phase.
Keeping communities safe, and helping first responders to do their job safely and efficiently, is the reason behind our Safe Community program, says Les Scott, an Enbridge senior public affairs advisor based in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. “Many of these agencies have to work with limited budgets. This program gives them another avenue for funding support,” says Scott.
With the help of past Safe Community grants, Morden Fire and Rescue has purchased various pieces of equipment — an automatic external defibrillator (AED), a side-by-side ATV with tracks to access remote areas, and tools for fire suppression training.
“Enbridge has been a huge supporter. Past grants have helped us to purchase equipment that saves manpower, and increases our training ability and our capacity to keep people safe,” Thiessen says.
