MOUNT DORA, Fla. – The Mount Dora Fire Department is now home to a new water rescue unit.
With so much of Mount Dora being a waterfront community, Lieutenant Raymond Capitola said he’s been pushing for the unit.
“We have this huge marina here, we have a very busy boat ramp. Boat sales over the last three years have been crazy so we have a lot of inexperienced people on the water.”
Lake Dora, where the unit’s jet ski is stationed, is also home to a kayak rental stand.
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“You can have anyone who has any type of experience in the water and they go rent a kayak, they go out here, maybe boats are on the water causing waves and they tip the kayak over,” said MDFD Chief, Joesph Hightower. “If they can’t get back in their kayak, then there they are.”
Before the department had a water rescue unit, they relied on the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to help in an emergency.
Hightower said in a water emergency, seconds matter.
“If they don’t have the ability if they can’t swim, or the ability to stay above water, once they go below that water line, then obviously it makes our job a lot more difficult in finding them,” Hightower said.
Capitola said “the sandbar” also fueled the need for a water rescue unit.
Capitola said “the sandbar” is just a few miles outside of Lake Dora, and said sometimes hundreds of boats will meet up in that area.
“When you get that many boaters together, it poses a problem,” Capitola said. “Sometimes you get injuries from boats crashing or hitting one another. That is another one of the reasons that this program, I think, is going to be so successful for the future is just the need. There’s a lot of activities going on out here on this lake that we are responsible for.”
Hightower said they’ll respond to water emergencies like any other call.
The unit’s equipment will stay on Lake Dora. Once the department gets a call the crew will head to Lake Dora, get on the jet ski, and respond to the emergency.
“We practiced this so our crews know where they go,” Hightower said. “They’ll bring the responding the responding crew there to take the jetski, then we’ll be prepared on land to set up the recieving area.”
While the equipment will stay at the marina on Lake Dora, Hightower said the unit could respond to other lakes like Lake Gertrude, but the unit would have to trailer the jet ski and transport it.
“We’ve practiced it,” Hightower said. “You know, our team knows how to quickly do that, but obviously it would take time. So, you know, that’s one thing. When you have lakes in different areas and they’re not attached, it’s just one of those, you know, risks that you have to deal with.”
Hightower said the jet ski is stationed at Lake Dora because of the number of risk factors.
“Lake Dora being the larger body of water in our jurisdiction where we have the most boat traffic, the kayak launch where the rental is, when you start identifying risk and you look at where is the greatest amount of risk, this is where the greatest amount of risk is,” Hightower said.
Hightower said the Lake County Sheriff’s Office will still assist with water rescue calls if the MDFD jet ski is responding to another call.
There are currently 12 members on the water rescue unit. Capitola said they hope to increase that number to 18.
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