VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Volusia County public safety officials are gearing up for the busy season by making sure all agencies are on the same page.
On Wednesday morning, the sheriff’s office, beach safety, and EMS met to practice an ocean rescue training that involved saving a stranded swimmer.
A boat ride with beach safety showed a step-by-step process of how a water rescue happens from start to finish. The training began with a stranded swimmer being pulled from the water on a jet ski. When she was brought to shore, a rescue dummy took her place.
In this exercise, the training dummy is a pediatric patient. Doctors from Arnold Palmer were on site to give feedback on the response.
“This should absolutely have no gaps, no times where oh I wish we had done this or done this differently. We have to be right on this every time,” said Doctor Mary Farrell.
Beach Safety Deputy Chief AJ Miller explained that ensuring every agency understands its role in the rescue mission is critical as the busy season approaches.
“We are right on the precipice of spring break, we have a lot of people coming into town, so we need to be ready because when more people come, you have more emergencies, so you need to be prepared for any situation,” said Miller.
Central Florida spring break starts Friday. It will be all hands on deck from every agency across Volusia County at the beaches.
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