In a brief training exercise Friday, Oct. 30, three members of the department, accompanied by members of the Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation, took the Lewes fire/rescue boat to the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse off Cape Henlopen point.

Tim McClanahan, boat captain and former fireman of the year, said the reason for the excursion to the lighthouse was to check out docking and emergency response procedures.

He said in the late spring and summer many people take tours of the lighthouse and volunteers from the foundation are constantly working on projects. “The chance exists that we might have to come out here,” he said.

His wife, Gina, who is also a fire department member, took photographs inside and outside the lighthouse to share with other members. “Anyone who thinks we will come out here and just dock – it’s not going to be that simple,” she said. “And we will need more than a three-person crew.”

She said a trip to the lighthouse was precipitated by a rescue the department performed recently at Cape Henlopen State Park. She said a patient undergoing cardiac arrest on top of one of the towers in the park could not be removed without help from the department’s ladder truck.

Docking was an adventure for the crew of the new fireboat, and because of rough conditions, they decided not to dock but to drop off the team and motor around the lighthouse.

The McClanahans and Mike MacCoy, rescue captain and fireboat captain, were taken on a guided tour of the lighthouse by foundation President Judith Roales.

Tim suggested the foundation add an automated external defibrillator and oxygen tank to first-aid supplies at the lighthouse.

He also said it would be a challenge to remove someone needing emergency assistance from inside the lighthouse because of its tight, spiral stairway, and docking in rough water could be hazardous. He looked at ways to perhaps use ropes tied to railings to lower someone from the upper levels of the lighthouse to the breakwater and docking area.