With the winter season upon us it brings up new sources of outside entertainment and also new potential threats to life and property. The new snow and the cold air has finally put a thin layer of ice over the lakes and streams giving way to icefishing and snowmobiling.
Fisherman will soon be creeping out onto the thin crackling ice to get to their favorite fishing holes and the smowmobiles that have sat for the last 9 months will soon be darting across the lakes. As a snowmobile rider I know first hand how you get the itch to ride as soon as there is ice on the rivers and lakes even if there is no snow.
I am also an EMT besides an outdoorsman and was curious on how many deaths actually occured because of falling through ice and what I found was staggering. In Minnesota alone there are an average of 6.4 deaths per season over the the past 35years because of going through the ice. that is 217 families that are no longer excited to see the first snowfall and are no longer enjoying the winter outdoors with their families.
The whole thought of this made me think long and hard about what would we do as EMS in our communities if we were called to a scene like this. Most departments have large aluminum boats with heavy motors and lots of equipment weighing them down,First the rescuers have to access the situation to see what resources are needed and generally you dont see a boat being pulled by a firetruck so it takes time to find a rescue vessel, then you have to find a boat landing or some place that you can easily lower this thing into which probably will not be anywhere near the victim, then you have to push this heavy boat on top of the ice to the victim if it is possible. the point is this all takes a lot of time and it will most likely turn from being a rescue to a body recovery.
After lots of research and talking with departments of their needs I decided I needed to find ice rescue equipment that was light weight, easy to use, easily stored, and low cost. What I found was the NEBULUS emergency flotation device made in Minnesota. it is deployed with the pull of a cord and ready to rescue in about a minute, it weighs only 17 lbs and when packaged up about it is about the size of a small briefcase. With the short period of time it takes to deploy and start a rescue this device blows all other ice rescue products out of the water; and at a cost of only $525 it is a no brainer that any sheriffs department, park ranger, EMS, or fire department should have one in each of their vehicles.
The other highlight of this product is that it is actually designed to be attached to a snowmobile or atv with a lanyard and if they were to go through the ice it would suspend the vehicle in the water for days until it could be covered and it also gave the rider a place to climb into safety if they ever fell through.
Needless to say I have one in my trunk!