Anyone who regularly walks around a fishing lake will recognise the small boats that are remotely controlled to deliver bait into the water.
Firefighter Dirk Jan Mollema is also passionate about carp fishing and saw the potential of such a boat for his work on and around the water.
“There was already a small group within the Emmen fire brigade working on innovation in the field of sonar. There are huge developments in this area, especially in sport fishing. That’s a hobby of mine, so I already knew what was possible. We developed that further.”
The result is a bright red bait boat – but equipped with a powerful sonar system. The safety region uses the boat to map the water and the lakebed when there is a report of a car or a person in the water. “That makes you proud,” Mollema confirms. “Especially because it works.”
The boat saves the Emmen fire brigade dive team a lot of time and effort. Before they even arrive, the boat can already have mapped part of the water. This significantly reduces the possible search areas and means divers spend much less time in the water.
“The underwater time of the victims is reduced considerably,” says Martijn Louissen, coordinator of water-accident response at the safety region. “So someone is very likely to surface more quickly and therefore has a greater chance of survival.”
The plan is to equip two teams in Drenthe with these boats. This way, a search can be started quickly anywhere in Drenthe. This is especially important now that the volunteer dive team in Assen has been disbanded. The sonar team can already have carried out a thorough search before dive teams from Emmen, Zwolle or Groningen arrive.
Jeroen Antoons is project leader for extended reality and digital development. According to him, these kinds of tools are becoming increasingly common within emergency services. He also points to a miniature car with a 360-degree camera that can simply be bought in a shop. In addition, the fire brigade has been using flying drones for some time to help fire crews maintain an overview.
According to Antoons, the safety region tries to encourage employees to come up with ideas like these. “That’s exactly what’s important, because the intrinsic motivation then comes from within. You get support from the group itself. It’s for them, so I’m actually very happy that they come up with initiatives.”
https://www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/18014841/brandweerman-dirk-jan-innoveert-tijdens-het-vissen?
