A person was rescued from Calgary’s Sikome Lake on Thursday, Global News has confirmed, marking the second water rescue in as many days at the provincially-run swimming hole.
It’s also the 13th rescue at that body of water this season, and the safety ambassadors at the lake are taking a chance to remind visitors that while staff at the facility are trained to respond to emergencies, visitors’ safety is in their own hands.
“You’re in charge of your own safety when you’re here,” safety ambassador supervisor Marie Donohue said.
“We’d like to help and we like to respond and we are trained for that.”
Donohue said there are two main differences between the safety ambassadors at the lake — who are trained as lifeguards — and a traditional lifeguard, and the first is about ratios of patrons to staff. At a pool or other facility that has lifeguards, there’s typically a ratio of 40 patrons to one lifeguard, and as people increase, another lifeguard is brought on.
At Sikome Lake, that ratio doesn’t exist with the strict staffing levels, Donohue said. The safety ambassadors are also more focused on the safety piece and water education, encouraging visitors to be in charge of their own safety.
Donohue said the ambassadors do sweeps of the beach, educating people on things like life-jackets and how to make sure they fit and are effective. Their biggest rule is that children under seven years old need to be within arm’s reach of an adult at all times, whether they can swim or not, and that things like floaties and life-jackets are not a substitute for parental supervision.
They will also occasionally return a child to their parents if they find them on their own and away from adults.
“One of the biggest things too, is even if they’re within arm’s reach but you’re on your phone and you’re looking at your phone, that’s not the same thing,” Donohue said.
“Quite often it can happen really fast — you can be standing right beside your child and if they go underneath the water, you might not be able to see it and they might not be breathing for a whole minute.”
She said most parents are receptive to the team’s feedback.
Donohue couldn’t say what led to the child being found unconscious in the water on Wednesday and did not elaborate on the circumstances of Thursday’s successful water rescue, but did say rescues happen often in a season.
WATCH BELOW (July 31, 2019): EMS are crediting staff a Sikome Lake for rescuing a little girl from a near-drowning on Wednesday. Adam MacVicar reports.
In the case of Wednesday’s rescue, the whole team sprang into action once the child was first pulled from the lake.
“We have gate staff who began to open gates for emergency, we have other staff members who were calling 911 and relaying the information as it happens.
“We had other staff members who helped with crowd control and ensuring that there were people stepping away from the situation. Finally, we had other rescuers who responded directly to the situation and assisted with the recovery and with the CPR,” Donohue said, adding that she was proud of her team for their quick action.
Donohue said the safety ambassador who rescued the little girl on Wednesday is grateful that everything was OK in the end. The child is expected to have a full recovery, but Donohue did stress that safety ambassadors have a challenging job.
“We’re really fortunate working with the Alberta government, because they do provide a lot of resources for us. But this job is high-stress,” she said.
“We are trained to respond to these emergencies, to these situations. It can be very scary. I was very scared yesterday, even after paramedics came by and told us that everything was OK, it’s still a lot to see and it’s still a lot to experience.
“It’s not a job that we take lightly and it’s not a job that we appreciate when people take lightly on us.”
— With files from Global News’ Michael King
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