Fire rescue boats designed specifically for Lake Sinclair and Lake Oconee have arrived for the Putnam County sides of the lakes to assist in any type of public safety agency’s rescue efforts.
The two boats, “Sinclair 1” and “Oconee 1,” arrived this past week at Putnam County Fire Department and Sinclair 1 has already been out on the water.
“We are thankful for the support and encouragement from the Putnam County Board of Commissioners and the community that we serve,” Fire Chief Thomas McClain said. “These boats will greatly enhance our ability to respond to and assist with incidents on both lakes as they were designed specifically to meet the needs of our fire department on our lakes.”
Both boats, which totaled $650,527.50, were funded by SPLOST 8 and SPLOST 9 funds, according to Putnam County Manager Paul Van Haute.
McClain said he worked with engineers to ensure the boats’ specifics could handle any emergency situation rescuers may encounter. Manufactured by Lake Assault Boats, the t-top of the boats fold down into the boat so they can go under the bridges of lakes Sinclair and Oconee even when the water level is up, McClain said.
The bow door of each boat is hydraulic and lowers into the water so that an injured victim can be pulled from the water and loaded onto the boat without further injury, and the boat houses will be designed likewise so the victim can be loaded directly from the boat into an ambulance.
The size of the water hoses accommodates the 1,250 gallons-per-minute water pumps for fighting fires on the water and supporting ground-based fires on the shore.
A pair of 224-horsepower Mercury V-6 outboard motors on each boat should propel them anywhere on the lake in good time. The boats are equipped with sonar scanners to look for items beneath the water’s surface, and FLIR infrared cameras that allow the rescuers to see people on the water after dark or through fog.
“We can see them as we’re approaching – it’s amazing,” McClain said.
The boats are not only designed specifically for Putnam’s lakes but also for Putnam’s fire department.
“I sent the color of our apparatuses (fire trucks) to the manufacturer, so the boats are the exact same color and have the exact same graphics as the apparatuses,” McClain said.
A Lake Assault Boats representative came on Sept. 28 and took Sinclair 1 out on Lake Sinclair at Oconee Springs Park along with the fire chief and firefighters/rescuers for training.
“It went well, and we learned a lot so I’m glad he came down,” McClain said. “We never had a fire boat before, so he taught us how all the electronics worked. We can use it to put out fires, respond to accidents on the lake and rescue people, and it will also function as a water source for ground-based fire operations. And it will be a resource for everyone on our lakes.”
The boats were designed in 2021 and ordered the first week of 2022, McClain noted. When acknowledging that new fire apparatuses have arrived and the new fire headquarters building will be opening later this month, he said, “All of our long-term projects are coming together at the same time. We didn’t order them all at the same time, but they’re just coming at the same time.”
The fire chief expressed gratitude for the boats and pointed out that there were four boating fatalities and one child seriously injured in boating incidents on Lake Sinclair between October 2020 and May 2021, which is not the peak lake season.
“Putnam County Fire Department encourages everyone to use a life preserver and practice boater safety every time they’re on the lake,” McClain said. “Because we’ve never had to get one person off the bottom of the lake that had a life jacket on. They may be the best swimmers, but accidents do happen.”