Leechburg’s river rescue team get new inflatable boat thanks to public’s donations — despite pandemic
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The Leechburg Volunteer Fire Company river rescue team has a new boat.
The company took delivery of a new Rescue One inflatable rescue boat last week. It replaces a damaged 10-year-old Zodiak inflatable.
Paid for with fundraising dollars, the new boat seats up to four people. It joins a larger Connector One aluminum flat-bottom boat that supports the dive team. The company river rescue team comprises six volunteers: John A. Foster, Clay Sorisio, Jesse Sterlitz, Erik Lautzenhiser, Joe Clark and Gary Lyon.
Last year, they responded to about eight river rescues on the Kiski River.
“The nice thing about this new boat is the seams are sonic welded and should be stronger and more reinforced,” Sterlitz said.
The fire company has lost more than $60,000 in funds this year because of decreases in fundraisers under covid-19 restrictions.
An inaugural food truck festival last month in Leechburg raised $5,200 in one day, which was enough to cover the cost of the new $5,000 boat.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the incredible support and turnout from the folks in the community,” Scott said. “We sold $20,000 worth of food in six hours.”
All of the rescue team members are certified in ice and water rescues.
Kiski’s comeback spawns rescue team
The team was formed in 2002 in response to more people using the Kiski River for recreation. Volunteers adopted the river, which was considered nearly dead after years of mine drainage pollution.
Dive team captain Joe Clark cautions the public to avoid recreational activities on the Kiski when the river is flooded and running high.
“When the river starts running fast, a lot of people don’t understand the current in the Kiski,” Clark said. “It’s terrible, with some parts of the river 23 feet deep from the old canal days.”
Clark said the group’s most exhaustive effort was a 2008 recovery mission for a drowning victim’s body that lasted 41 days.
Response calls have sent the team to river and lake rescues as far away as Dubois and Moraine State Park.
“We’ll go wherever needed,” Clark said.
The old boat is on the company grounds; Clark said it will be discarded.
“Due to liability, I’d be afraid to sell it to anyone because the seams have been glued more than once, and this last rescue, it broke loose again,” Clark said.
That was the deciding factor to get a new boat.”