WOOD Radio Local News

WOOD Radio Local News

WOOD Radio Local News

 

GRFD's dive team rescues woman in partially submerged car

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Grand Rapids Fire Department's newly revamped Water Rescue Team has made its first rescue.

It happened around 11 o'clock Saturday morning in the Grand River, near the Ann Street overpass north of downtown. Some people had call 9-1-1 saying a vehicle had jumped a snowbank behind a hotel and landed in the river.

Fire Department Captain Joel Boyer said one end of the vehicle was submerged when firefighters got on scene, and the vehicle was upside down.

"Our immediate response was to send a rescue swimmer who was dressed at the time (as a diver) out on a tag line to figure out what we had, and whether there was someone in the car for sure, or not," he said.

They found a woman inside an air pocket in the partially submerged vehicle. Divers were deployed with newly purchased battery-operated extrication tools to force the door and remove the victim. She was responsive and talking after being pulled out of the vehicle, bundled up and taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment.

 The dive team used new rescue tools to cut into the vehicle to see if there were any other occupants. The money for the tools came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.

The divers then swept the immediate area to confirm no other victims were in the water. They then secured the vehicle so it could be removed from the river.

It was the first GRFD Dive Team rescue since it came online in September.

"This was the first response where we had divers who could actually go under water, which is new for us," Boyer said. "We've had to do things from above the surface, mostly. And use a pole and so forth to reach people who are under water that we couldn't see. So, now we have the divers that we can send in."

GRFD Dispatch also requested Bud's Wrecker Service to partner with firefighters in the rescue response.

The fire department thanked Bud's for its "quick and skillful response," and said in a news release it appreciates those who called 911 to report the emergency.

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