July 27—For years, Niagara Falls firefighters and New York State Park Police have responded to calls for help from the edge of the Falls to the Niagara River Gorge.
But it was only in a dramatic rescue, shortly after the American’s fall, in November 2019, that the city’s firefighters realized they were making two potentially fatal mistakes.
“We always did it with the wrong equipment,” Falls Fire Capt. Jason Cafarella said. “And with zero training.”
On that cold, blustery day more than four years ago, Falls fire chiefs watched from the riverbank as three city firefighters entered the rapids, above the edge, to rescue a man who had entered the fast-moving waters. Now-retired Fire Department Captain Gerald Frazier recalled wading into the turbulent waters of the rapids that day and immediately noticing two things.
“I was very surprised at how fast the water was,” Frazier said. “And how slippery (the bottom of the river) was.”
After the rescue, department heads knew they needed to change how they prepared for rapid water emergencies.
“So the way we were taught was absolutely wrong,” Cafarella said.
In September and October, the first eight of what will be a new 16-member NFFD Swift Water Rescue Team headed to Oriskany, NY, for four days of specialized swift water training. The training was courtesy of a grant from Basil Ford, which also allowed the department to purchase more specialized rescue equipment and protective clothing.
“It’s an incredible facility,” Cafarella said. “There’s a difficult physical fitness exam you have to pass to do the training. It was more intense than I think anyone expected. It was physically demanding and very humbling. It taught me to fear the water and to respect it.”
Falls Fire Chief Gary Pochatko said once additional funding is available, eight more firefighters will receive the same training. The chief said the more firefighters trained and prepared, the better the department will be able to respond to rescues in and around the falls.
“Occurrences are rare,” Pochatko said. “But that’s what we have to be prepared for. We have to have enough (firefighters) to get in the water. It would be good to have the whole (department) trained. We need as many as possible.”
The chief said the department has been working to acquire the equipment needed to equip the new unit, as well as space to store it. Two weeks ago, the first eight team members showed off their gear for their first training exercises in the Goat Island rapids.
“We’re in the infancy of all this,” Pochatko said. “This first group (of trainees) is setting the tone.”
Cafarella, who will be the rescue team’s first commander, said training last fall and recent rapids drills reinforced how ill-prepared the Falls firefighters were.
“Most of what we were doing wrong was related to our equipment,” Cafarella said. “The (protective) suits we wore, for example, made working in the water very difficult.”
The fire captain said specialized training at the Oriskany facility also showed Falls firefighters “many different ways to get people out of the water.”
“The weight of the person (being rescued), the strength of the (river) current (usually about 35 mph) all factor into the rescue,” Cafarella said. “Being able to practice and be comfortable in the water is very important.”
Another factor is unique to rescues here, Cafarella said. While most rapid water rescues happen in rivers or as a result of flash floods, these waters don’t end at the edge of a huge waterfall.
“So you have to learn to avoid, work with the limitations of having a big waterfall at the end of the fast water,” said Cafarella. “We are working on ways to handle rescues close to the limit.”
Just like the rescue that led to the creation of the new NFFD rescue team.
