Dover firefighters take advantage of frozen river for ice rescue training

DOVER (WJER) (Feb. 7, 2022) – The Dover Fire Department is making sure it is prepared for all possible emergency response types in this weather.
Captain Brooks Ross says firefighters recently took part in ice rescue training, something they try to do every year when possible.
“We’ll go, cut a hole in the ice and stick one of us in there as the victim.
We’ll send guys out in the rescue suits, they got to crawl out.
They’ll hook a rope up to the victim and we have people on shore that will drag them out.”
Ross says they’ll often hold it at the pond at Dover City Park, but this year they went out to the city’s new boat launch ramp on the Tuscarawas River.
“It’s a little different. You have to take into consideration the moving water, even though it’s slow-moving water. A lot of times that ice is different, you never know how thick it could be.
If the water level has dropped any there might be air spaces between the ice and the water, and it won’t support any weight.”
Ross says it is a way to keep the firefighters up to date on the ice rescue techniques since many people like to go ice fishing or just venture out onto frozen lakes or ponds.
“We want to be ready to respond if we have an accident and somebody goes through the ice.”
The training was held a few days after two separate incidents where hunters became stranded in boats on the icy Tuscarawas River near Bolivar and Newcomerstown.
Ross says firefighters are typically called to maybe one or two ice rescue events in the county each year.

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