ROGERS -- The Beaver Lake Fire Department doesn't have a boat.
The western gateway to Beaver Lake runs right through Beaver Lake Fire Department's service area. The department covers an area from Rogers, past the Arkansas 12 bridge toward Hobbs State Park, where fire protection is picked up by Rocky Branch Fire Department.
Rocky Branch doesn't have a boat, either.
After fatalities on Beaver Lake this year, fire chiefs at both departments say they want to change that.
John Whisenant, Beaver Lake department chief, ticked off a list of occurrences that would have been better handled if the department had a boat:
There was a man who fell off his pontoon boat and was stranded on a rock shelf.
There was the hypothermic patient in January who pointed to a vehicle in the water and mumbled something about a baby inside. The water was too deep for firefighters to wade out to the car, and a boat had to be called in from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. As it turned out, the patient was confused and there was no child in the car, but firefighters spent an hour worried about that possibility, Whisenant said.
Also, there was the June 11 collision between two personal watercraft near Prairie Creek Marina. Volunteers used a borrowed boat to reach the scene. A woman and an 8-year-old girl were checked for injuries, and firefighters performed CPR on a 14-year-old girl who was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Firefighters took her death hard.
"Every patient is important to us, but a child even more so," Whisenant said.
The department had plans to get a rescue boat, but community support for getting one kicked into high gear after the accident.
A friend of the two teens who called 911 to report the collision started a fundraising page for the department and raised $900. The department has received a $10,000 grant, a $6,000 private donation and held a community garage sale that raised $4,000. They're nearly to their $27,000 goal, Whisenant said.
The money for the boat will come entirely from private donations, not tax dollars, he said. Prairie Creek Marina has volunteered to provide a slip for the boat.
There are seven fire departments on Beaver Lake, Whisenant said. Of those, Avoca and Northeast Benton County on the north side of the lake and Hickory Creek in Lowell have boats. Arkansas Game and Fish officials also patrol the lake.
The Benton County sheriff's office has four boats and three personal watercraft for patrols, a spokesman said. One deputy patrols the lake full time in the summer, and several others are trained to respond in emergencies.
On a recent morning, as the wind whipped across the lake, members of the Beaver Lake and Rocky Branch fire departments attended their fourth rescue boat demonstration of the year.
At first, they checked out inflatable boats, but firefighters can't do CPR in an inflatable boat, Whisenant said.
Inflatable boats, even military-grade ones, are not made for Beaver Lake, said Jerry Oliver, chief of the Rocky Branch Fire Department.
"They're not big water boats like what we have out here," Oliver said.
Tony Lumpkin, president of RescueONE, visited with officials from the departments, pointing out modifications he had designed for the Model 1673X2 boat. He designed a flat-bottomed rescue boat in 1993 after rescuers shopping at his boat dealership pointed out flaws with what he had in stock. He started production on the new model two years ago.
The custom boat kit, with lights and motor, costs between $24,000 and $27,000 and takes three to five weeks to build, Lumpkin said.
Lumpkin calls his design a modular water rescue system. The boat can link with other boats in a formation. There are hooks and cleats to attach equipment, and a diver/victim support platform gives crews in the water a safe way to lift a person into the boat -- even a person strapped to a backboard.
Without the platform, it would take five rescuers on the boat to load one victim, Whisenant said. With it, only three rescuers are needed.
"In a volunteer setting you might not get five rescuers," he said.
The department already has portable pumps that firefighters can put on the boat to draw from the lake to fight a fire, Whisenant said.
Both fire chiefs said they would like the two departments to buy the same model of boat so rescuers can cross-train. The model they prefer would allow rescuers to do CPR on board and would fit under the Arkansas 12 bridge during flooding. The departments would also be able to link the boats if needed, they said.
They've set spring break as their boat-buying deadline.
The water may be cold, but traditionally a lot of people head out to enjoy Beaver Lake at that time, Oliver said.
"The worst thing in the world for us is to feel helpless, to feel we could help if we could get there," Oliver said.
The lack of boats means that often the two fire departments are not initially called to help in water emergencies, although they can provide medical care once a victim is on shore.
That is why the Rocky Branch department was called an hour after a boating accident on March 24. Five young people fell into the water after a canoe and paddle boat capsized during a spring-break family outing. One person made it to shore and called for help. A 21-year-old mother drowned. Searchers looked two weeks before finding her body.
A sheriff's office boat rescued three stranded on a sandbar. Oliver arrived in time to see the rescue. The deputy had to arrive from Centerton, Oliver said. Oliver said and his crew could have been there in 10 or 15 minutes. The sandbar was within sight of where he could have put in a boat, if he'd had one, he said.
Other marine units are about 30 minutes, by water, from the Rocky Branch area, Oliver said.
The Rocky Branch Fire Department is just off Arkansas 303 and could launch from Rocky Branch Marina, 2 miles to the east, or Coppermine Lodge, 2 miles to the west, he said.
Whisenant said that over the past five years, there have been 61 boating accidents on Beaver Lake, with seven fatalities, and 17 drownings.
While there's no guarantee that a quick response would have prevented the spring-break drowning or saved the life of the girl who died in the personal-watercraft accident, the fire chiefs said they'd like the opportunity to at least try.
"Getting there quicker is always better," Oliver said.
Metro on 11/26/2015