City River Rescue Rates Ebb, Flow Over Time

After a flurry of water rescues on Easter Sunday, Fredericksburg Ward 1 Councilor Bea Paolucci suggested that the city bill for the service. Officials with the Fredericksburg Fire Department say that the idea is being considered. 

The incidence of water rescues in the city of Fredericksburg do not bear out a discernible trend, at least over the last few years. According to police records, in 2008 city rescue units responded to seven water rescues. In 2009, the number jumped to 42. Last year, the number declined to 26. So far this year, the city has responded to river distress calls seven times, all in the month of April. 

"It's so up and down," said Natatia Bledsoe, public information officer for the Fredericksburg Police Department. "I couldn't even guess as to what that might mean."

Despite the varying annual incidence of water rescue situations, Bledsoe says that recent river safety initiatives have helped raise awareness of the sometimes deadly power of the Rappahannock. Bledsoe notes the Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation department, which has installed large signs along the riverbank warning of the risk of drowning. Those signs, however, are geared more towards would-be swimmers, rather than the boaters who made up all of Sunday's calls. 

The Rappahannock remains a popular swimming spot, said Bledsoe, but undercut rocks and an irregular riverbed can make for treacherous going. In the last three decades, there have been more than 80 deaths in the river near Fredericksburg, most of them swimmers.

"We do have drownings there almost every year," said Bledsoe. "What you see on the surface hides all of the real danger under the water, all the rocks and debris."

For boaters, up near Lauk's Island the river bears a series of rapids which, depending on the flow, can range from class 1-3 and can be challenging for novice boaters. All it takes is one wrong turn in a wobbly canoe and the occupants could be pitched out into swift waters. 

At that point, you pray that someone sees you and calls 911.

Once the rescue services are alerted, an expensive operation begins, requiring rescue units from Fredericksburg and Stafford County to respond and coordinate from their respective sides of the river. Units are deployed to the scene of the incident, as well as to City Dock, from where Fredericksburg's rescue boat is launched. 

"Plucking people out of the river when you are trying to effect a safe rescue is a very expensive endeavor," said Bledsoe, emphasizing "safe". "Anytime we have any kind of water rescue, you get almost double the normal fire rescue units."

But to charge for the privilege? Bledsoe says the city has no legal mechanism by which one could be sent an invoice for simply being pulled out of the river. The idea isn't too foreign for the city's emergency services, which already bills for ambulance trips to the hospital. Unfortunately for city coffers, this "revenue recovery" program did not kick in on Sunday because none of the rescued boaters required ambulance services. 

"In all of the cases on Sunday, everybody was above the surface of the river and simply did not feel safe getting back to shore," said Bledsoe.

Bledsoe said that the idea of charging for river rescue operations is being discussed, but the idea is in its infancy. 

"Upper level management are looking at doing the research and making a preliminary foray into deciding whether or not this is a good idea," said Bledsoe. 

Such a move would require the approval of the City Council as well as consultation and coordination with Stafford County emergency services officials.