On Millers Bay Tuesday afternoon, Oshkosh firefighters are prepared for a call they never want to get.
“This is one of those low volume calls, but it’s very high risk,” Public Information Officer John Holland told Local 5. “So for us, the more training we do, the better.”
When that call does come in, Holland says the department needs to be ready.
“It’s one of those things that we hope we never have to do, but we do it about five to 10 times a year,” he said.
And so they took to the ice in the station’s airboat.
“We are practicing with GPS,” Holland said, “because once you get out on that lake, everything just looks the same.”
The airboat is designed to go from ice to water to get rescuers exactly where they need to be when disaster strikes.