Portage’s fire department expects to be busier on Lake Michigan this summer in response to the Michigan City Coast Guard station being downsized.
“It is definitely going to impact the city of Portage with our dive team,” Fire Chief Chris Crail said.
During the last boating season, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to 125 calls, Crail said. “My assumption is we are going to pick up a big part of that slack,” he said.
Portage’s dive team isn’t the only dive team on Lake Michigan’s southern shore that can be activated, but it’s the only one nearby with a boat that can handle Lake Michigan’s depths, he said.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has a boat in Michigan City.
“When our boat is in the water, we have the ability to respond,” Crail said. As of this week, the boat is docked at the Portage Public Marina and ready to go.
Master firefighter and paramedic Todd Laux said Portage’s 36-foot lake assault boat was obtained through a 2011 port security grant, put in operation in 2012. It’s powered by twin 225-horsepower engines.
The department is seeking another grant to upgrade the electronics and other gear.
If you’ve seen one of the Chicago Fire Department’s boats, you’ve seen what Portage’s boat looks like.
It has a deck gun on top to shoot water and can supply water to fire apparatus on land. With Lake Michigan water pumped through the boat into 5-inch lines, the fire boat can act just like a fire hydrant to supply water to fire apparatus on land. “At that point, we kind of have an unlimited water supply,” Laux said.
The front of the boat features a power gate to beach the boat where necessary. It also serves as a handy way to bring a boater or troubled swimmer onto the boat without having to lift the person over the side of the boat, Laux said.
“We have a UTV that we’ve actually driven onto the front of this,” he said.
The number of calls for the fire boat varies, but it’s estimated at 30-plus in each of the past few years.
“We were out there all the time” during the COVID years, Laux said. With the Coast Guard reducing hours in Michigan City, he expects a pandemic-level call volume this year.
Currently, Portage’s boat serves as far west as Lake County and as far east as Beverly Shores. “We anticipate expanding our mutual aid,” Laux said.
Portage Fire Department has 18 dive team members, full strength for a change. All of the dive team members staffing the boat are certified EMTs and paramedics.
Alekzandr Rhody, a probationary firefighter sworn in recently, was drawn to the Portage Fire Department because of its dive team, Crail said.
Prior to the boat being put in service Monday, it was washed and waxed – that’s easier to do before the boat gets in the water – and equipment put back in place, firefighter and paramedic Tyler Brown said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
