By Jonathan Betz
WFAA-TV
DALLAS — Dallas firefighters unrolled a new tool in their arsenal Saturday. They say the Rescue Mat could change the way they save flood victims.
The buoyant device gets help to those in trouble by letting firefighters crawl or even walk to the victims.
“It spreads the weight of the rescuer out over a much greater surface area,” explained Capt. Hoyt Hubbell of the Dallas Fire-Rescue swift water rescue team.
First Alert, manufacturer of the Rescue Mat, showed off the product in a swimming pool during a firefighters convention in downtown Dallas on Saturday. The bright red, 25-foot long foam mat can be unrolled instantly and floats on top of the water like an oversized swimming pool lounge.
It’s useful to get to victims who may be unreachable by boats or swimmers.
“With this mat, you don’t have the draft you have with the boat and the motor, so you can cross over a log or debris,” Hubbell said, but he added the Rescue Mat would not likely be usable in the swift currents that are common when there is flash flooding.
Because the technology is so new, some firefighters worry that it may have limited real-world use.
But Debbie Hanson, a spokeswoman for the product’s manufacturer, says the Rescue Mat has been repeatedly tested, and is especially useful in swamps or ice fields.
“Time is of the essence in every emergency, so the critical issue was deployment — not having to inflate the unit, not having to take it off a boat or launch it,” she said.
The Rescue Mat sells for $3,400, but Dallas Fire-Rescue got theirs for free.