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Posted at: 08/31/2009 10:41 PM Water Rescue Training(ABC NEWS) -- After recent drowning, local officials are practicing their water rescue and recovery skills on the week before the busy Labor Day weekend. The Albert Lea Fire Department trains their firefighters several times a year on how to rescue a drowning person, and how to recover bodies from the water. "Tonight we'll be focusing on recovery operations on the water," said Captain Devries from the Albert Lea Fire Department. When these men get a call that someone went under in the last few minutes, they would form a line on the shore, grab hands, and walk out to find the drowning swimmer. And if a swimmer goes under, every minute counts. "For a viable life, it's basically 6 to 8 minutes," said Devries. Here you can see them dropping a dummy into the water. In this exercise they're focusing on retrieving a body in situations where someone has probably been in the water much longer than 8 minutes. "We have quite a few drowning here in the state of Minnesota, with all the bodies of water we have," said Mike Albert a part-time firefighter. Mike Czaplewski says it's tough to find someone in water that's difficult to see through, like the water in Fountain Lake. They use accounts from witnesses and move in a pattern to find the body. It's tough to do and fortunately, it's not done often, but it's important. "It's been a while, luckily," said Devries. "We need to be trained in this at all times, we just don't know when we're gonna get the call," said Albert.
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