Benton County firefighters hope for a social media rescue
A rural Benton County fire district is turning to the community and social media to help make water rescues along the Yakima River.
The river runs throughout most of Benton County Fire District 2. While the district has trained six volunteers who can swim in the swift and shallow water, they don’t have a boat to get to those hard to reach areas.
“That dive team responds with a raft that is not set up for the shallow waters typically found eight months out of the year,” said district officials.
A tight budget doesn’t leave any room for the $55,000 the department needs to buy the shallow bottom rescue boat they would need to respond. So firefighters turned to a GoFundMe campaign.
The district serves about 10,000 people, but that number swells during the spring, summer and fall as workers arrive to work in the fields and orchards and visitors come for the wine industry and outdoor recreation, Fire Chief Ron Duncan said in the GoFundMe post.
The Yakima River is popular with thousands of rafters, bass fisherman and people in canoes, but because of the shallow water there are not many power boats. That’s why a custom-made boat would help them year-round.
The mostly volunteer department responds to about a 1,000 calls a year, which includes water rescues.
“Our district is located in the middle of two dams; therefore, we have to trailer the current rescue raft to either side of the dam, or navigate frequent but common shallow waters. We have saved a little money to help aid in our river rescue budget in hopes to buy a good boat, but it’s a struggle,” said the post.
The fire district cannot receive any more money through property taxes to help pay for the boat, Duncan said.
“So we are looking to modern social media to help meet the service needs of our community and those that come to visit,” he posted.
They hope to buy a Wooldridge Xtra Plus boat, or something similar, since the boats have a hull design to handle occasionally hitting rocks, while still protecting the propellers.
District officials are hoping to have the boat in the water before the 2019 summer season.
“As you can see, we really need your help to make sure this fundraiser is seen and gets the necessary attention to reach as many people who would be willing to forgo a latte for just one day,” organizers wrote.
Anyone interested in donating can go to bit.ly/BentonBoat. The campaign has raised about $800 so far.
Special donation levels are available allowing people to buy bricks or possibly to have their name on the boat.
This story was originally published December 24, 2018 at 12:41 PM.