The greater Mansfield area and the Pontiac as a whole can now rely on a new rescue boat that the Mansfield Fire Department has purchased.
Mansfield fire chief Patrick Bertrand said that the new 21-foot rescue boat cost $140,000 and would complement the other 14-foot boat that they currently have. He explained that they are one of the few departments in the MRC with a rescue boat, in addition to Pontiac North, Bristol and Pontiac Ouest, so they are often called in as support.
“As the need was growing, there were more calls on the river and we also assist all the other municipalities in the MRC Pontiac when it’s a water rescue,” he said. “We decided to go ahead and get something to improve ourselves.”
He added that their other boat is still useful in certain situations, but the bigger vessel is better suited to rescues on a body of water the size of the Ottawa River.
“We use that smaller boat when it’s a tighter spot or a smaller lake,” he said. “The small boat we can lift, with six or seven firemen, [ . . . ] by hand if we need to. This is a bigger boat, it’s made for bigger lakes or the Ottawa River.”
He said that the new boat is equipped with all kinds of high-tech gear for rescuing people in the water, from an infrared camera to sonar and a wide array of lights.
It can accommodate up to 15 people and is powered by two 70-horsepower outboard motors.
“It’s pretty well equipped, there’s a lot of nice features, like the lighting on it for nighttime rescues,” he said. “Once you find the person, we have a remote control to put the the spotlight on them so we don’t lose them in the water.”
Mansfield-et-Pontefract mayor Sandra Armstrong said that the boat would be a good asset for both the local community and the Pontiac as a whole. She said that the municipality had backed the loan for the boat’s purchase, which would be gradually paid off with fundraising over the coming years.
“With the fundraisers and stuff like that, they’ll be paying back the debt,” she said. “I’m very proud of the fire department [doing] fundraisers like that to be well-equipped.”
Bertrand said that he estimated it would take several years before the boat would be paid off, and that they had recently finished paying off the pickup truck they purchased in 2023. He said that the Mansfield en fête celebrations, combined with other fundraising efforts throughout the year would help them bring in the money. He said that in the future he would like to set aside some time for the general public to check out the new boat.
“We want to do an event, an evening if the general public wants to come and have a look at it,” he said.
