Iowa fire department has hovercraft at its disposal

Iowa fire department has hovercraft at its disposal

COUNCIL BLUFFS (AP) — The Council Bluffs Fire Department says its new hovercraft has already aided its rescue capabilities, and should come in handy this winter.

The Daily Nonpareil reports the department purchased the hovercraft for about $60,000 last summer.

According to department Technical Services Captain Jason Sorenson, the hovercraft can fly 9 inches off the ground and can travel over water, grass, ice and snow.

The department had about $140,000 set aside to replace a 25-year-old ambulance. Instead of buying a new ambulance, officials found an ambulance with 8,000 miles for about $65,000. The money that was saved was used to purchase the hovercraft.

The department was able to rescue a 23-year-old man trapped in the West Nodaway River in Clarinda due to flooding in August less than a month after acquiring the vehicle. Officials say the amount of time to rescue the man would have been drastically longer if they did not have the hovercraft.

According to department officials, the hovercraft will be an asset when ice begins to appear in Lake Manawa, and will help keep rescue team members safe. Department chief Justin James says it’s difficult to deploy rescuers through bad ice on the lake due its large size.

“The hovercraft is a very stable platform, and we’re not getting in the water. It’s not going to sink. It won’t capsize like a canoe or other boat,” James said.

According to James, water rescues have been dangerous in recent years regardless of the time of year, which led to the department deciding to buy a hovercraft. The CBFD is one of 35 fire departments in the country that uses a hovercraft.

James said, “Hovercraft technology has been around since 1950, but the United States just has not embraced it or bought into it like Europe and Russia.”