Regional Fire Chief Brian McEvoy praised the efforts last week of emergency services in the rescue of a two-year-old girl from a well in the Bonnyville area April. 26.
The police, EMS and fire department were notified at 11:14 a.m. that a girl had fallen into a well in a field adjacent to Highway 41, south of Highway 28, about 21 kilometers outside of Bonnyville.
A Bonnyville Fire Department's command truck was first on the scene, arriving about 14 minutes after receiving the call, with EMS, the RCMP and a rescue truck arriving shortly after, according to McEvoy.
The child struggled to stay afloat in the freezing water for several minutes, eventually falling below the waters surface, according to an RCMP press release issued following the incident.
In their first attempt to rescue the girl an RCMP officer was secured and lowered headfirst into the well. Unable to reach her with his arms, the officer was extracted from the well. A fireman then used his pike pole to probe the well attempting to determine its depth, while probing the well he was able to hook a piece of the child's clothing and bring her to the surface.
EMS personnel immediately began performing CPR on the child, who was unresponsive. She was rushed to the Bonnyville Health Centre and then transported by STARS air ambulance to Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital. There has been no public release as to the child's condition.
“The fireman who was using the pike pole was a member of the team of firefighters that responded,” said McEvoy. “The entire rescue was a well-coordinated team response that included members of the RCMP and Bonnyville Municipal Ambulance. Ideas and strategies for this rescue were developed jointly by all of the people on scene.”
McEvoy was quick to give everybody involved in the rescue credit saying that “the rescue to get her to the surface was almost the easy part, it was all of the work that was done afterwards that needs to be praised.”
He added, “We are proud of the fact that this was a successful rescue and that everybody that was involved in it did what was necessary to make it happen. That includes the doctors in the hospital, the flight crew with STARS and the team that was flown out from Edmonton.”