Swift Water Rescue

This morning at about 5:30 Red Lick VFD and Madison county Fire Department were dispatched to a call of a person trapped in a vehicle in a creek. There was some confusion about the location. A Madison County Sheriff's Deputy found the location and directed the other first responders to the scene. Richmond Fire Department water rescue team was requested and soon arrived.

The driver was the only person in the vehicle. Thankfully he was able to extract himself. He was sitting on top of the vehicle when first responders arrived. The initial call was for a person that was trapped in the vehicle. If we had to do a vehicle extraction in the swift water, the job would have been so much tougher.

A Madison County firefighter in a PFD was lowered down to the creek on a rope. The firefighter tied a personal flotation device (PFD) to the rope and threw the PFD to the driver. The vehicle was about 20 feet from the creek bank. The thow landed the PFD in the bed of the vehicle. The driver put the PFD on.

Red Lick Chief Wayne Adams knows the area well and was able to get to the other side of the creek on foot. Chief Adams was about 10 feet from the vehicle on that side. He threw a rope to the driver and talked him through the process of tying the rope to him. Under the Chief's guidance the driver got into the water and was pulled out of the creek. The Chief and the driver walked back to the other side of the creek where they driver was offered EMS care. He refused it because he was unharmed. Just very wet and cold.

We thank Madison County dispatch for working to get us to the scene, Madison County Sheriff's Department for finding the incident location, Madison County Fire Department for their leadership and calm heads, Richmond Fire Water Rescue for being there when we called, and of course the Red Lick Volunteer firefighters that responded.