Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
Water rescues near dams can be harrowing as churning waters pull in people and rescuers. The Elgin Fire Department is painfully familiar with that, after two of its own died in 1974 during a rescue near the city’s dam in the Fox River.
The department now has a Waterwog 3 rescue boat made by Creature Craft, a new boat to enhance safety. Its most salient feature is an overhead roll cage. The nearly 14-foot boat has backup safety in the form of a rope about 300 feet long that can be pulled from shore. The total cost was $33,800 including training, but the city spent $14,910 after a grant from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. The new boat replaced a 20-year-old dam entry watercraft, one of three Elgin Fire Department boats.
Elgin’s water rescue and recovery team has responded to 69 calls in the last decade, mostly in Elgin but also in Algonquin, Carpentersville, St. Charles, Bartlett, Gilberts, South Elgin, and Wilmington. The team also receives requests for trainings.
