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| Snowmobile Search and Rescue Team Holds Training Session |
The winter months are paradise for those who might own snowmobiles or participate in other local activities, but one local group is essentially putting out the message that they're looking out for you.
The Knox County Sheriffs Department's Snowmobile Search and Rescue Team held their annual on-site training session over the weekend at Lake Storey. A number of volunteers and their snowmobiles, several sheriffs deputies, firefighters, and ambulance personnel all went to the lake to take part in potential responses to either of two accident scenarios: someone on snowmobile getting into an accident, or a hunter ending up down.
Pat Hennenfent is the director of the team, and tells WGIL it's a whole different animal responding to an accident when dealing with winter elements. "When you get cold weather and blowing snow, snowmobilers are pretty crazy people. They like going out in really bad conditions," Hennenfent said. "But it's not just us. It could be someone who got stuck (while out snowmobiling for fun) and tried walking to a house -- we've had that before where they haven't been heard from for awhile. So we go out and look for them. Luckily, we found them at a house and everything was fine. We're available for anything like that."
Hennenfent says now that he and the Prairie Drifters Snowmobile Club are better organized, he expects his teams will be called out more frequently. The annual outdoor training was on Saturday, just a day after the coldest weather of the season, and yes, Hennenfent says if the temperatures were below zero, and they were needed, his teams would be out.
The group is always looking for more volunteers, and Hennenfent says anyone interested, regardless of whether they have their own snowmobile, can call the Knox County Sheriffs Department.
(Members of the Knox County Snowmobile Search and Rescue team watch a demonstration with a member of the Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service Saturday. WGIL News Story and Photo by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 01 19 09 by Newsroom |
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