Sometimes firefighters have to do things even they don’t like in an effort to learn to keep cool under pressure.

City firefighters recently plunged themselves through the ice and into the cold waters of Lake Erie near the Bay Boat Club as part of training to deal with potential hazardous situations. The firefighters dressed in protective gear and ran different drills and potential accident scenarios to prepare them for having to break through the ice and go into the lake on short notice.

“There’s always a few calls around the area each year of a fisherman being stuck out on the ice, an animal getting out there that needs rescuing or someone has fallen onto the ice or into the lake itself,” said Lt. Joe Wallenhorst of the Bay Village Fire Department. “When an accident happens, you don’t get a lot of notice that you’re going to have to go in; you get your gear and you go out there.”

Although most of the department firefighters have been through some form of the training through the years, it’s still an adjustment going from the outside air into the water, Wallenhorst said.

“Some of them don’t like it,” Wallenhorst said. “Particularly the newer ones aren’t really sure at first about going through the ice and into the water. Once they go through the first time, it’s a little easier for them to deal with it.”

Wallenhorst said he personally has no problem.

“In my case, I love being in the water,” he said. “I’m a fisherman, I go out on a boat a lot and I’ve done it a number of times, but not everybody reacts that way.”

Firefighter Ron Westmoreland said the training is invaluable when having to deal with extreme situations such as someone falling down into a lake from land above it.

“There’s a lot of  land in the city which is right up on the lake,” Westmoreland said. “We have to be able to respond to calls which take right down there on the water or ice when someone’s fallen.”

He cited one instance several years ago where a man had died in an accidental fall from property above and firefighters had to retrieve the body. If someone falls and is severely injured, seconds could make a difference in saving that person’s life, he said.

“The quicker we get down there and get a person, the better off they are because the lake is so cold people can’t last a long time,” Wallenhorst said.

Wallenhorst said members of the department dive team also see the experience as valuable training since they respond to different situations.

“We also get valuable training for our mutual aid calls to other departments, since we try to help other departments which also have to respond to calls on the lake,” Wallenhorst said.