It was a busy week for LCFD. Firefighter Bednarz and Lt Teixeira spent the week in Charlestown, RI, training to become the Departments first Certified Rescue Swimmers. It was a physically demanding week getting tossed around in the waves and getting pulled around by the fast currents in the Charlestown Breachway. The class learned different water entry and various water rescue techniques. While they were off playing on the water. Crews in town spent some time familiarizing themselves with the topography of our shoreline. We tapped into the knowledge of LC’s Harbor Master, Mike Massa. A man with great knowledge of our coastline, Massa showed the guys some tips and tricks to navigating our tricky, rocky shoreline. Having well trained boat operators, to work with our Rescue Swimmers is very important. Trainings like this make us more proficient, and ready to handle incidents on our water ways. You will see us out there in the spring with our newly trained rescue swimmers, honing their skills with various boat operators. The guys were fortunate enough to train with firefighters from Middletown, Narragansett and Tiverton as well as Environmental Police Officers from RI DEM. Working with Tiverton, Middletown and DEM as well as the Us Coast Guard is the norm for any water related incident that we have.

Check out the Little Compton FD Facebook page for videos of the Rescue Swimmer Training.