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Four rescued from capsized airboat in Everglades
By Scott Wyman
And Alva James-Johnson Staff writers
June 27, 2005
Four adults stranded on an airboat in the Everglades for two hours were rescued late Saturday night by Broward County fire rescuers.
All four people were unharmed, according to Broward County Fire Spokesman Capt. David Erdman. But he listed bugs, alligators, snakes and hypothermia as potential dangers for people stranded in the Everglades at night.
Erdman said dispatchers received a call for help from a woman at about 11:30 p.m., and responded with a helicopter and airboat, in addition to engine and rescue units.
Dispatchers kept the woman on the line while rescue workers performed a grid pattern search of the area southeast of the Sawgrass Recreation Camp, just east of US 27 and north of I-595, Erdman said.
He said the rescuers used infrared equipment and a "night-sun" spotlight, and spotted the capsized airboat from the helicopter just after midnight.
"This process could have taken three to six hours before we got the airboat," Erdman said. It "took us 45 minutes this time."
The fire department got the rescue airboat in February when it opened the Alligator Alley fire station.
Rescuers first used it during a helicopter crash that month, Erdman said. Since then, they have used it four other times for minor incidents with boaters having engine trouble.
"Now that we have the boat and people know, we are getting more calls," Erdman said.
He said every two to three months a boat sinks, flips over or gets stuck in the Everglades.
"It's not uncommon to have a lot of people out there," he said. "The Everglades are quite popular late at night because that is when some of the best fishing is."
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun
WaterLizard 8)
Four rescued from capsized airboat in Everglades
By Scott Wyman
And Alva James-Johnson Staff writers
June 27, 2005
Four adults stranded on an airboat in the Everglades for two hours were rescued late Saturday night by Broward County fire rescuers.
All four people were unharmed, according to Broward County Fire Spokesman Capt. David Erdman. But he listed bugs, alligators, snakes and hypothermia as potential dangers for people stranded in the Everglades at night.
Erdman said dispatchers received a call for help from a woman at about 11:30 p.m., and responded with a helicopter and airboat, in addition to engine and rescue units.
Dispatchers kept the woman on the line while rescue workers performed a grid pattern search of the area southeast of the Sawgrass Recreation Camp, just east of US 27 and north of I-595, Erdman said.
He said the rescuers used infrared equipment and a "night-sun" spotlight, and spotted the capsized airboat from the helicopter just after midnight.
"This process could have taken three to six hours before we got the airboat," Erdman said. It "took us 45 minutes this time."
The fire department got the rescue airboat in February when it opened the Alligator Alley fire station.
Rescuers first used it during a helicopter crash that month, Erdman said. Since then, they have used it four other times for minor incidents with boaters having engine trouble.
"Now that we have the boat and people know, we are getting more calls," Erdman said.
He said every two to three months a boat sinks, flips over or gets stuck in the Everglades.
"It's not uncommon to have a lot of people out there," he said. "The Everglades are quite popular late at night because that is when some of the best fishing is."
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun
WaterLizard 8)