Water Rescue Operations – Purpose
Establish a recognized professional water rescue component for Washington County. The County has two major water ways that over a million visitors a year enjoy for recreational purposes. The boat program will be the only rapid response boat rescue program servicing our area. Our goal is to be able to deploy a functional boat program to any area of our county within 5 minutes and have it on site within 15 minutes.
The primary purpose of the program is to access, assess, and treat anyone who may become injured, stranded, or need assistance on the waterways or during a flood within our jurisdiction. In 2010 Washington County EMS became the second EMS Department to be responding partner of the world famous Texas Task Force 1 (TXTF). The department spends countless hours assuring proper preparedness whether it’s training at Lake Somerville, the Brazos River, or on out of State Task Force training exercises, we believe that if advertised you must be able to perform. The SOD Water Rescue Paramedics recently worked with the US Coast Guard on search and rescue missions involving long duration search patterns and coastal water deployments.
The secondary goal is to be able to provide assistance to any public safety department such as the Sheriffs Office, TPWD, or any other department who may require a boat to access or perform certain job related duties (such as a search for potential victims or violators).
Standards
The rescue paramedics (RP’s) who staff the boat during response are required to successful complete the following requirements
Crew Configuration
Unlike some water rescue boat teams our program will always have the ability to deliver the highest level of pre-hospital care in the State of Texas. One rescue paramedic within the division will ALWAYS accompany the boat in any response mode (recovery, search, rescue, evacuation, etc..). A minimum of 2 BRT Members are required for daytime operations and 3 BRT Members for night operations.
Positions