The volunteer crew of the Shuswap’s new emergency rescue boat finally had an opportunity to put their extensive training into action over the May long weekend.
While the boat wasn’t to receive its official certification of operation until Friday, May 18, crew members were promptly ready Thursday when they received their first call-out.
“We understand that you are not yet certified and operational until tomorrow but we do have an emergency right now – can you respond?” was the call that came in from the BC Ambulance Service dispatch, according to Shuswap Lifeboat Society director Jerry Silva. “The station leader was on the phone, it was a conference call, and he realized that lives, perhaps, were at risk, so he said yes, we will.”
Silva says it was later learned that certification hadn’t been required to react, that the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue already considered the Shuswap crew fully qualified. And they were ready and the boat prepared to depart in less than 10 minutes. But as it was leaving the dock, a second call came in to stand down, the call-out had been cancelled.
Despite the false call, Silva is pleased with the crew’s preparedness, stating they were reading to go in less than half of the targeted response time.
“We wanted to have the crew ready to leave the dock within 20 minutes and that time, it was ready to go somewhere between 9 and 11 minutes, and another time it was ready to go within the same time period,” says Silva. “We can be on the water in less than 15 minutes.”
The boat was officially operational 8 a.m. Friday. That night, the boat was called out again, with the first request for aid coming in at approximately 8 p.m. The boat and crew were ready within 11 minutes, says Lifeboat Society director Carla Krens, noting there was a slightly longer delay as an ambulance crew had to come in from Salmon Arm. Sicamous and Salmon Arm paramedics have trained to work on the boat for on-water emergency call-outs.
Upon leaving the dock, a second call came in for an incident in roughly the same area, says Krens. The injured parties were brought back to Sicamous onboard the rescue boat, and from there, they were transported by ambulance to hospital in Salmon Arm.
A third call-out came Saturday afternoon for a medical emergency in the Narrows.
“The crew and ambulance attendants were on their way within 15 minutes of getting the call and the casualty was taken to Sicamous and from there by ambulance to Shuswap Lake General Hospital,” says Krens.
The rescue boat is based in Sicamous, and operated under the mandate of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue. It B.C.’s first inland station and one of two freshwater stations in Canada.
