Several years ago, a man was fishing on Lake Conroe in the middle of the night when he noticed a car in the water near a boat ramp. When he called 9-1-1, Montgomery County ESD 1 Fire Station 94 was alerted. Lt. Joseph Murphy remembers being awoken from a deep sleep, dashing with his crew to the station’s fireboat while putting on diving gear, and plunging into 40-degree water. The rescue crew soon discovered there was a woman in the car, and there was only a small pocket of air left. The woman was understandably distraught, and Murphy remembers that she grabbed onto his hands with a vise-like grip. “Her rings left blood blisters on my hands,” he says.
Although it was a dramatic scene, it was not out of the ordinary. Fire Station 94 is located on the shore of Lake Conroe, with a fireboat docked just a few steps away; therefore, crews are not surprised when their duties include water rescues. “A lot of stuff that people don’t think happens, happens,” Murphy says.
Fire Station 94 is one of eight stations within Montgomery County ESD 1, which serves the 200 square miles in the northeastern portion of Montgomery County, including Lake Conroe. Station 94, located about four miles west of I-45 on FM 1097, is the only fire station with direct lake access. It is equipped with a fire engine, a booster truck (for putting out brush fires), and a fireboat.
Before Station 94 was operational, emergency personnel had to drive to a nearby dock to launch a fireboat, slowing their overall response time. In 2011, Fire Station 94 opened, operating out of a temporary metal building; in 2013, the station’s permanent structure was completed. Today, thanks to Station 94, emergency personnel can respond to emergencies on the lake faster.
When Station 94 is alerted, a remote-control device lowers the station’s fireboat into the water. Meanwhile, it takes well-practiced crews just five minutes to put on all or most of their dive gear (including wet [or dry] suits and buoyancy compensator devices [BCDs]) and jump on the boat. It then dashes to the scene of the emergency, slicing through the water at speeds of up to 52 miles per hour. In water no colder than 70 degrees, Murphy explains, there is a chance of rescue if emergency personnel can complete their efforts within a 60-minute window. Being able to be in the boat within five minutes helps meet this goal.
“Station 94 can get there faster. Most other agencies have to drive to the boat; our crews walk to the boat about 100 feet,” says Chief Jason Oliphant. “We have gotten pretty efficient,” Murphy agrees. “If we have good information, we can get the job done within 60 minutes.”
Phone technology also assists in quick response times. A cellphone, when used to make a 911 call, has the ability to provide responders with a GPS location of the emergency. Watercraft sometimes drift, but if the caller gives an accurate description of the boat, crews can usually find the site of an emergency quickly.
The station’s new 37-foot Munson is equipped with dive gear, fast boards (floating backboards) and a pump that allows lake water to be sprayed at 550 gallons per minute, reaching a distance of about 50 yards from the boat. It replaced a 32-foot Boston Whaler, which is now undergoing repairs. When completed, the Boston Whaler will become a backup to the Munson. “Our goal is to have both boats in the water during busy weekends on the lake,” Oliphant says.
Station 94 might be alerted for a variety of emergencies on the water, such as boat wrecks and boats that are disabled or taking on water. Sometimes, crises are created when people go out on the lake in stormy weather. In addition, some people choose not to wear personal flotation devices (PFDs) while they enjoy time on the lake. Wearing a PFD greatly lessens the chance of drowning, Murphy says, noting that Station 94 has not encountered a drowning victim who was wearing a PFD.
While fires on boats are rare, medical crises are not. Murphy estimates that 80 percent of Station 94’s calls are generated because of medical emergencies, whether on land or water. Every crew member assigned to Station 94 is dive qualified and trained to rescue people in up to 60 feet of water; however, crews are just as capable on land. Crew members are trained to fight fires and respond to medical emergencies, wherever they occur.
To make sure every lake emergency has the best chance for a good outcome, rescue groups—including Station 94, the Marine Division of Precinct 1 Constable’s Office, Conroe Fire Department, Montgomery Fire Department and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department—work together. Segments of the county are served by different emergency response teams, Oliphant explains, but the “imaginary line” that separates these areas on Lake Conroe is blurred. It is necessary, therefore, for first responders to work together. “We cooperate well with other agencies,” Murphy says.
All these entities are trained for water rescues; however, Station 94 has three Public Safety Divers on duty at all times. In a worst-case scenario, when a body needs to be recovered, the divers at Station 94—augmented by some of the other 45 dive-qualified fire fighters in the district—initiate a recovery mission. Lake Conroe is considered to be “black water,” Murphy says, because of zero visibility 15 feet beneath the surface. Responders use SONAR (sound navigation and ranging) to help them recover bodies and evidence, as well as a pivot board, which was custom-made for Station 94 at a nearby machine shop. The device allows divers to thoroughly search the water in a 50-foot circle, expanding the distance incrementally.
A few years ago, a near-drowning incident inspired Murphy, then a firefighter, to continue his education to include water rescues and recoveries. A three-year-old boy—the same age as Murphy’s son—barely survived, but years later, he still visits Station 94 to show his appreciation. Today, Murphy’s list of credentials is long. He is a Public Safety Diver Instructor certified through the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) and is working toward his Master Public Safety Diver certification. Because Murphy and other divers assigned to Station 94 are so highly trained, much of the dive training of personnel assigned to Montgomery County ESD 1 takes place at Station 94. “We have become very self-sufficient,” he says.
Since its inception, crews at the station have responded to countless calls. Fortunately, many of those alerts have resulted in happy endings. Drake Bearden, a driver/operator, has vivid memories of the time a person stopped by Station 94 to report a driverless boat floating near the FM 1097 bridge. Boats sometimes slip their moorings, so the crew was not surprised. They responded quickly.
“The lake was really choppy, with six-foot swells,” Bearden says. The crew looked thoroughly along the shoreline for the boat, but did not find it; however, being extra cautious paid off. While searching for the boat, they discovered a man stranded on the bulkhead, unable to get out of the water and nearing exhaustion. “We took our time going across the shoreline and that’s when we saw him,” Bearden says.
As the saying goes, not all superheroes wear capes.
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