{"id":9803,"date":"2021-10-13T05:17:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T09:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=9803"},"modified":"2021-10-13T05:17:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T09:17:55","slug":"the-seaside-heights-water-rescue-team-are-highly-trained-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2021\/10\/the-seaside-heights-water-rescue-team-are-highly-trained-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seaside Heights Water Rescue Team Are Heavy-Duty, Highly-Trained Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"v-MSj0pD7s-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='1000' height='562' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/MSj0pD7s?hd=1&cover=1&loop=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=1&muted=0&controls=1&playsinline=0&useAverageColor=0&preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Lifeguards are rightly honored for their heroics \u2013 especially after a summer of rough rips and daring saves at the Jersey Shore \u2013 but in Seaside Heights there is another layer of protection for those who find themselves struggling in the surf.<\/p>\n<p>The Seaside Heights Water Rescue Team, part of the Seaside Heights Volunteer Fire Department, is outfitted with the latest equipment and is often called to respond to emergencies island-wide. The team also trains hard in order to pull off rescues in the worst of conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll summer long, every night, they go out and drill,\u201d said Seaside Heights Councilman and volunteer firefighter Rich Tompkins. \u201cI don\u2019t think many people know that. These guy drill just like they\u2019re in the military \u2013 and other towns call us because they know our guys are trained well and can get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team was recently honored by the Ocean County Department of Business Development and Tourism. Two weeks ago, the team responded to a staggering 18 calls in a single day, in multiple towns up and down the island.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had no rescues in Seaside Heights, believe it or not,\u201d said Tompkins. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a great honor to have been able to keep people safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team is outfitted with a number of specialized vehicles and pieces of equipment, some of which can be seen in the video attached to this story. The equipment includes a dedicated Ford F-350 water rescue truck and another special van-based four wheel drive rig which tows an inflatable boat and engine, plus a jet-ski, to calls.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9807\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"An inflatable boat from the Seaside Heights Fire Department&#039;s Water Rescue Team. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9807\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9807\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297-1024x576.png\" alt=\"An inflatable boat from the Seaside Heights Fire Department's Water Rescue Team. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9807\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An inflatable boat from the Seaside Heights Fire Department\u2019s Water Rescue Team. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_9808\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"The Seaside Heights Water Rescue Team, Oct. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9808\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9808\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099-1024x510.jpg\" alt=\"The Seaside Heights Water Rescue Team, Oct. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"1000\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099-1024x510.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099-768x383.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099-1536x766.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ssh_water_rescue_099-2048x1021.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9808\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Seaside Heights Water Rescue Team, Oct. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The team is a reflection of the community spirit of Seaside Heights, Mayor Anthony Vaz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of these members were junior firefighters,\u201d said Vaz, himself a member of the volunteer fire company. \u201cIt\u2019s a great program we started here in town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team, of course, is always looking for new members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you know someone looking to volunteer, steer them to the fire department,\u201d said Tompkins. \u201cWe could use members, especially the young people moving in.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2021\/10\/the-seaside-heights-water-rescue-team-are-highly-trained-heroes\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lifeguards are rightly honored for their heroics \u2013 especially after a summer of rough rips and daring saves at the Jersey Shore \u2013 but in Seaside Heights there is another layer of protection for those who find themselves struggling in the surf. The Seaside Heights Water Rescue Team, part of the Seaside Heights Volunteer Fire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[1959,446,20,1985],"class_list":["post-9803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-police-fire-courts","category-seaside-heights","tag-featured","tag-seaside-heights-fire-department","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news","tag-water-rescue-team","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DJI_0297.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-2y7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}