Crews from the Collingwood Fire Department launched their boat into Georgian Bay today to rescue six people who were stranded on Nottawasaga Island off the Collingwood shoreline.
Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Emo said the group of people went to the island on an 18-foot Stanley boat from the Birch Street boat launch to collect samples from the island. They were doing work for an environmental organization. Five people were on the island and one person remained in the boat when it capsized, throwing one man into the water. The boat remained overturned and drifted away.
Emo said the man was able to make it to the island where the rest of the group kept him warm and kept contact with emergency crews on the shore. Fire, police, and paramedics were at the scene at the boat launch on Harbour Street.
A crew of four firefighters went out on the Collingwood Fire Department's 24-foot Stanley boat and a helicopter was dispatched from Trenton through the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in case the person who fell into the water needed to be taken directly to the hospital from the island.
The helicopter was called off, however, as all six people on the island were able to get onto the fire boat for a ride back to shore.
The 911 call came in at about 9:30 a.m. on March 22 and the fire crew and six members of the research team were back to the Harbour Street boat launch at Cranberry before 10 a.m.
The fire department's boat was at the station, having been pulled out of the water in the fall. Emo said there wasn't any significant ice to break through at the launch and the route to the island was open water.
