SOUTH THOMASTON — “Did you get a good lesson on the current,” asked South Thomaston Fire Department’s Deputy Chief David Elwell, grinning at Colby Miles. The young Thomaston firefighter smiled back, but he was tired, as he peeled the bright orange survivor suit off his back.

Miles had just swum more than 550 feet into the middle of the tidal Weskeag River, directly toward a drowning victim flailing in the water. But the closer he tried to get, the more the distance increased between him and his target. In the attempt to swim a beeline to the victim, Miles had failed to factor in the river’s strong current, which pushed him away from the victim and down the river toward the sea. It  was only because he was a dedicated swimmer in high school that he managed to cut across the outgoing tidal current and reach the drowning man, in this case, South Thomaston Fire Chief Bryan Calderwood.

Although Elwell and Miles laughed, they were also serious about the intent of the exercise. Eighteen square miles in size, South Thomaston is bordered by a lot of water: To the west is the St. George River while the Weskeag River flows down the middle of the town toward the ocean. It begins in the swampy wetlands around Buttermilk Lane, broadening from a creek into a river before it empties in the broad Ballyhac Cove and the ocean. The town also has oceanfront along Muscle Ridge Channel where fishermen and recreational boaters constantly travel, to the islands or between Tenants Harbor, Owls Head and Rockland. It is a territory where, as firefighters and first responders, they might well be called to help with a water emergency.

“There is always a need for training with the water,” said Calderwood. “There are very few points in town that we can get the boat in the water and we train every year on water rescue. Our town is surrounded by a lot of water, with much potential for incidents.”

The small town, with a population of approximately 1,600, had already experienced several man overboards and water emergencies in recent years; just a month ago, a South Thomaston fisherman, Kurt Winters, and three other fishermen, saved a man from the saltwater. The man was on a nearby island and, noticing his skiff had floated away, attempted to swim after it when he got overwhelmed by the cold water. Others heard him yelling for help and the fishermen rescued him. The fire department also responded with its 13-foot Boston Whaler, and the town’s ambulance.

It is for those situations, aside from training in burning structures and staged accidents, that the South Thomaston Fire Department holds periodic water safety training for its firefighters. At the end of July, they invited Thomaston firefighters to join them, setting up a drill that covered the geography of the two towns.

The scenario involved three duck hunters who had set out in a canoe near Buttermilk Lane in Thomaston to travel down the Weskeag. The canoe flipped over, dumping the hunters into the cold river. Nearby homeowners heard yelling and called 911, but the call lacked details. It remained up to firefighters to find the three, who had now separated.

To complicate the situation, the tide had just shifted and began to flow out. But even so, it takes a good half hour for the tide change to be felt way upstream.

“One thing you need to know about the river,” said Elwell, to the assembled firefighters, “is that just because high tide is at 5:15 p.m. doesn’t mean the tide has turned above the bridge. Just remember that.”

The bridge is where Route 73 crosses the Weskeag, or, as locals call it, the Keag (pronounced “Gig”).

Close to the mouth of the Weskeag, the current was beginning to pick up outgoing steam, but further up the river, the flow was still moving the other way, and had to be be factored into the rescue strategy.

The training began at 7 p.m., as approximately 20 members of the two town fire departments gathered in the bays at South Thomaston Fire Department. The volunteers rolled in from their regular jobs — fishermen, contractors, emergency dispatchers — for their regular Monday evening training. The banter was well under way as the older volunteers and the younger firefighters, men and women in their late teens and early 20s, leaned against the walls and on the bumpers of firetrucks.

“You ready to swim,” Elwell asked one young woman, as she walked into the fire station. The evening was foggy and cool, and the light was just beginning its fade toward dusk.

“What?” she yelped. And then she shrugged, “Oh, sure.”

While he prepped the firefighters on what would ensue in the evening training, three volunteers, including Calderwood, Todd Butler and Jasmine Tyler, headed over to the river, slipped on survival suits, and situated themselves at various spots in the river. One was in the water closer to Buttermilk Lane, another was in the middle of the river, and the third ended up at the mouth of the harbor.

South Thomaston had conducted water training just two weeks prior, when Calderwood was again a victim in the water. That time, he swam out from the town pier, got into the current and floated with it towards open water. South Thomaston employed its 13-foot Boston Whaler, with a rescue crew that included Capt. Todd Butler and firefighters Adam Grierson and Matt Snow, who pulled Calderwood into the boat and transported him back to the dock where waiting EMS personnel practiced medical assessment.

In another scenario, Snow was the victim and Grierson the rescue swimmer. Firefighters practiced rescuing a victim floating under the bridge, hauling hi in by a line.

South Thomaston: Chief Bryan Calderwood, Deputy Chief Elwell, Assistant Chief David Harjula, Capt. Todd Butler, Capt. Jeff Harjula, Lt. Travis Reynolds, Lt. Arthur Grierson, and firefighters Adam Grierson, Robert Grierson and Jasmine Tyler

Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 706-6657.