Location Info

The Kananaskis River is located in western Alberta on the edge of the Rocky Mountains.

It's roughly 30 minutes and 39 kilometers from the town of Canmore.

River Info

The Kananaskis River is a damn-release river that flows through the summer months. When released it normally flows between 30-40m3 (cubic meters per second). It runs between 6-12°C in the summer.

Weather Conditions

The Kananaskis River was between 8-10°C on this day.

Ambient temperature: 13°C

Wind: 4 km/h

Precipitation: 10%

Scenario Info

River flow 33m3

Some recreational canoes have capsized and lost their canoe.

A team of trained swiftwater rescue technicians was training upstream and heard calls for help. You meet them as they arrive on scene.

Shout and signal

Communicate with the victim by any means available. Establishing eye contact is very useful. Always maintain a positive attitude and be encouraging. Keep communications short and to the point. This rescue can be performed by anybody.

Throw

Accuracy is important. As stated above, establish eye contact and communication with the victim to ensure they are expecting the object thrown. The object thrown must be buoyant, and the rescuer does not have any contact with it after throwing, such as a rescue buoy. As the rescuer is likely to be within 10ft (3m) of the water’s edge, ideally they would be trained to Water Awareness level, and be wearing appropriate PPE as a minimum.

Reach

The length of the reaching aid is the limiting factor with this rescue. Throwbags, inflated fire hoses, ladders, and wading poles have all been used to good effect. Even though a throwbag is thrown, the rescuer maintains contact with the end of the rope, so is effectively extending their reach.

Wade

Entering shallow slow-flowing water in order to perform a throwing, reaching, or contact rescue is a relatively low-risk option (for appropriately trained personnel), which can significantly increase the chance of a successful rescue. Particularly in flooded environments, the majority of successful rescues involve wading with casualties. Entering the water to wade is the upper limit of the skills of a First Responder.

Craft

Rescuers are now moving into higher-risk hot zones, albeit floating above the water. There are a wide variety of craft that can be used to perform successful rescues: inflatable pathways, RIBs, PWCs, hovercraft, inflatable

boats, rafts, canoes, kayaks, and many others.

Swim

Using all their skills, Swiftwater and Flood Rescue Technicians will be able to perform in-water contact rescues to rescue any victim, regardless of their level of consciousness or injuries.

Helicopter or aerial

Sometimes rescues will be beyond the capabilities of Swiftwater and Flood Rescue Technicians (SRTs). Further options include calling in a helicopter, or an advanced rope rescue team.

Which of these would you choose?

Take a minute to compose a plan before continuing the scenario. See how much your plan differs from these rescuers.

Conditional

A conditional rescue relies upon the victim doing something to assist. For example, throwing a rope to the victim would require them to have the knowledge, presence of mind, and physical capability to hold onto the rope, and grip it tightly until they are safe.

True

A true rescue requires no assistance from the victim. The rescuer must do everything, and so must be correctly equipped and trained to perform the rescue. Clearly, the risk to the rescuer is higher, as they must go into the hot zone. However, the benefit to unconscious or injured casualties is obvious.

Which would you use here?

Finally, the patient and rescuers will be transported back to safety and further care.

You can see the victim is transported back to the bank with the use of a throw rope and downstream safety in place.

Throwbag rescues

The throwbag is a basic yet essential rescue tool for all rescuers working around the water. A throwbag rescue is a conditional rescue - in order to be successful, the victim must hold onto the rope that is thrown to them.

Many victims of water and flood incidents may be physically or psychologically unable to hold on to the throwbag. It is possible that the victim is actually a rescue team member who has fallen in to the water, and is more than able to receive a successfully thrown throwbag.

Initially, the victim must be located. They may be trapped on a fixed object in the water flow, where they can be quickly located. However, they also may be traveling in the water, in which case a search could last many hours before the rescue can be performed.

In this scenario, the location of the two victims happens quickly. They can both be seen from the bank. You can see the first two rescuers make contact with the closest victim and confirm there are only 2 of them.

Once the victim has been accessed, they must then be stabilized. This may be simply getting ‘hands-on’ to secure the victim, or a full medical immobilization. As a minimum, the victim should be provided with a correctly fitting buoyancy aid and helmet.

Victim 2 is fairly stable on the rock. Throughout the scenario, rescuers can be seen checking on their well-being and reminding them to stay on the rock. Luckily both victims are in full PPE.

Victim 1 is partially stabilized by throwing a rope that they can now pull up on. This of course requires the victim to use a lot of energy.

Once the victim is located, then the team must (where possible) gain access to them by whatever method is appropriate. This could be a simple throwbag rescue to another team member. The victim may be injured and require a boat to gain access.

The first form of access from the rescuers is verbal. They instruct the victim on the rock to stay put. This also acts to somewhat stabilize that victim. Next, they start coaching the other victim to free his foot entrapment.

Remember Best Practice Guideline No. 12 Choose rescue techniques according to the ability of the victim.

Victims may not be able to help in their own rescue. Sometimes a simple throwbag or ‘conditional rescue’ is the fastest and most effective rescue,but exposure to the rapid cooling effects of water sometimes means that the victim is unable to assist in their own rescue.

If a victim is unlikely to be able to assist, rescue teams should utilize ‘true rescue’ techniques, that do not require the victim to assist in their own rescue.