This past weekend members of the Kennett Fire Company’s Water Rescue Team attended a 16 hours of Emergency Boat Operations and Rescue training. The class was taught by White Cap Water Rescue Training, LLC. Students traveled to Susquehanna River in Wrightsville, PA in order to have adequate space and water levels to perform the skills. Weather and water conditions for the weekend were cold, windy and raining which provided real life conditions for the training.
All students were taught in a variety of boat and rescue skills. Those skills included: boat maneuvering including forward and reverse operations, a slalom course, downstream and upstream peels outs, eddy turns, ferrying techniques, conscious and unconscious victim recoveries, distressed boat recovery, paddling techniques and righting a boat after capsizing.
All 8 members successfully passed the course. These members will now continue to work on these skills and techniques internally in order to be a qualified boat operator for future water rescue incidents.