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But the rescue was still successful...
COCHRANTON — A fire department’s boat sank during the rescue of a kayaker on French Creek on Sunday.
Frank Danforth, chief of Blooming Valley Volunteer Fire Department, said the department does not have logistics in place yet to retrieve the boat. He said the department will not know if the boat was damaged until it is recovered from the water.
“We don’t know all what happened yet,” Danforth said on Monday. “There is still an investigation going on internally and that’s all I can really say about it.”
Blooming Valley, alongside Cochranton Volunteer Fire Department and the Crawford County Scuba Team, responded to a report of a flipped kayak at around 3:43 p.m. south of the Cochranton Bridge.
According to Jason Hudson, chief of the scuba team, the sinking occurred when the boat got caught on a strainer.
“It’s when an obstacle is in the water, usually a tree, and the current goes over top of it,” Hudson said on Monday, describing a strainer.
Hudson said the boat got stuck on its side before sinking. He described the boat as being 14 feet long and with a motor.
Blooming Valley lists among its apparatuses an inflatable boat with a 10-horsepower engine.
Hudson said one of the boat’s crew suffered a hand injury during the sinking. However, he said no other injuries occurred during the rescue.
“The original water rescue went well,” he noted.
According to Cochranton Fire Chief Scott Schell, speaking to The Meadville Tribune on Sunday, the man had become stuck on an island after the kayak flipped.