(Arnolds Park)– A close call today (Saturday) for a dock worker on West Lake Okoboji.
Arnolds Park/Okoboji Fire and Rescue, water rescue and dive team members were called around 8:40 this (Saturday) morning to a report of a dock barge that had struck a dock at 2123 Browns Bay Avenue in West Okoboji. The operator of the barge couldn’t be located.
As crews were responding to the scene, the Dickinson County Communications Center received a report of a person in the water about a quarter mile out from the Dry Dock in Smith’s Bay. The Lakes Area Fire Boat was mobilized and arrived at the victim’s side minutes later. The victim was found grasping onto a piece of dock lumber and was not wearing a personal floatation device. A rescue swimmer was deployed. The victim was unable to grasp a rope that had been thrown due to hypothermia conditions. The rescue swimmer transferred the victim to the fire boat and was taken to shore for treatment of hypothermia at an ambulance parked at the Arnolds Park City Beach. The victim was then taken to Lakes Regional Healthcare.
Authorities have not released the name of the person involved or the company that owned the barge.
Upon interviewing the victim, authorities learned he was moving a board on the dock barge as it was moving. The board apparently got caught between a pontoon and the water, throwing the victim off.
Arnolds Park/Okoboji Fire Chief Chris Yungbluth says the incident serves as a reminder as to how important it is to be wearing a life jacket while working on the water…Click here for comment from Chris Yungbluth
Yungbluth estimates the man had been in the 51-degree water for about a half hour to 45 minutes.
