By Alexi Friedman
Newark Star-Ledger (New Jersey)
Copyright 2007 Newark Morning Ledger Co.
All Rights Reserved
NEWARK, N.J. — Robert LaBar slid swiftly on his belly across the frozen lake, gripping ice picks in his hands for traction. When he reached a gaping hole in the ice, LaBar plunged into the 34-degree water, then worked to save Ben Keenan, who was submerged except for his head.
LaBar pushed Keenan onto a waiting rescue sled, then signaled for the crew 75 feet away to begin pulling them in, fastened by a tether.
The two men safely reached the shore, then repeated the rescue three more times.
LaBar, 24, and Keenan, 25, both members of the White Meadow Lake Fire and Rescue Squad in Rockaway Township, were participating in an ice-rescue training exercise on Sunday at Verona Park Lake in Verona.
About 60 responders from 20 different fire and rescue departments throughout the state took part in the weekend-long event, which simulated various scenarios involving ice rescue.
LaBar, a fire lieutenant, trudged out of the lake as water dripped from his protective suit, which covered him from head to toe. Everyone who went into the water wore similar gear.
“It’s exhausting. It takes a lot out of you,” he said. While most of the cold suits provided ample warmth from the water, his had sprung a few leaks. It didn’t matter. “You practice and practice to prepare for the real thing,” LaBar said.
After the recent cold period, much of the ice covering Verona Park Lake is more than 6-inches thick, requiring the rescue instructors from Life Guard Systems - a professional dive and water rescue company from New York - to cut open water holes using chainsaws and axes.
Air temperature hovered around 24 degrees on a recent Sunday morning, a chill that would have given rescuers precious little time had someone actually fallen through. Depending on the person, it could take less than five minutes for hypothermia to set in, said Ryan McCormick, who organized the event and is first lieutenant with the volunteer Verona Rescue Squad. McCormick, 32, is also director of disaster preparedness for Saint Barnabas Health Care System, which co-sponsored the second-annual training.
Simulations on the ice give responders first-hand experience, providing a sense of urgency that classroom training can’t deliver, said Cliff Turen, a Life Guard Systems instructor who supervised the rescues. Someone’s initial reaction to watching a person fall through the ice can lead to disaster, said Turen, an orthopedic trauma surgeon in Baltimore. It’s that moment when people are most susceptible to “the rescue beast,” he said, and may act before thinking.
Turen said he reminds his students not to panic. “What do we do? Let’s do what we practiced,” he said while standing on the lake, about 150 feet from shore. There, Mark McGrath, 45, a fire chief for Wayne Fire Company 5, practiced an advanced rescue technique involving multiple victims.
This was the second year Verona Park Lake has played host to the ice rescue training, which ends with written exams. If participants pass, they become certified surface ice technicians.
Verona’s squad is the only suburban team in Essex County equipped for ice rescue, and the lake at the Essex County-owned park is the reason, McCormick said. He can’t remember the last time a person was pulled from its icy waters. One winter about a decade ago, a firefighter who was untrained in ice rescue skidded across the lake to retrieve a dog that had fallen in.
In general, McCormick said, “no ice is safe ice.” Unless the area has been clearly marked, “no matter what you think, you shouldn’t be on the ice,” he said.
Several yards away from the ice action, about 20 children and adults were skating within a cordoned-off area.
Virginia Citrano, 50, was skating with her two sons, Patrick, 8, and Steven, 6, watching as the younger boy slapped his hockey stick at a puck and then chased after it.
The ice rescue training had caught Citrano’s attention and she was glad the event was taking place. “As much as you tell your kids to stay away from the ice,” she said, “kids are kids.”