Saturday featured a late-night rescue effort by Van Meter firefighters, as they helped get 13 people off of a sandbar. It was the first time the team used this new air-boat for a real operation, but they say they could never go back to working without it.
In Van Meter, water rescues don’t happen often, there are only a handful of them every summer.
But when they do: “Cutting the response time on a water rescue is huge,” said assistant chief Jermey Feldman from the Van Meter Fire Department.
Their coverage area extends along the Raccoon River down to Booneville. Often on the waterways, you’ll see wooded trouble spots, where kayakers, tubers and canoers can get easily stranded.
Their old boats, while capable, weren’t always the fastest. There was one long night last summer.
“West Des Moines was out there with their boats, and there was thirteen or
15 people and that took all night long, because of how shallow the river was and the boats all kept getting stuck,” said Feldman.