Operation Flotation rescue buoy helps firefighter save teen at Cable Bay

Tarakani volunteer firefighter Ross Bennett leapt to action with the help of a flotation device last Thursday when a youngster became caught in a rip.

A teen caught in a rip at a Far North bay was saved by a volunteer firefighter holidaying in Northland.

Ross Bennett, deputy fire chief at Ōakura Volunteer Fire Brigade in Taranaki, was in the Cable Bay carpark last Thursday when he noticed a crowd gathering near the water’s edge.

From his elevated spot, he could see a girl and a boy struggling in the water.

“At that point, I was sort of still hoping someone closer was going in,” Bennett said.

He watched as a man entered the water with a bodyboard and headed towards the boy, who was closer.

“Then I sort of decided I needed to get in and get the girl,” Bennett said.

The firefighter had earlier spotted a rescue buoy strapped to a board on a post by the carpark on the way to the beach.

The public rescue equipment is one of many installed at more than 70 beaches around the country thanks to Operation Flotation.

Bennett grabbed the rescue buoy and strapped it around his body, before running into the choppy surf. He didn’t think twice about going to help.

“It was the compulsion to act that made the difference,” he said.

He swam about 150m to the girl, who was struggling to keep afloat. He thought she was between 13 to 15 years old.

“She just couldn’t get over the lip of the wave,” Bennett said.

“She was continuing to fall down on to the back of the wave and go further out.”

Bennett threw the buoy towards the girl. On the second attempt, she was able to grab on.

Using the device’s rope, he pulled her closer and against the strong current.

“When I was pulling her, she was not going anywhere,” he said. “It was quite an effort to get her closer.”

The high swells “bashed” the pair about, pushing them into nearby rocks which were jutting out of the water.

By that point, Bennett was able to grab the girl’s arm, pulling her closer.

Eventually, his feet were able to touch the sand, meaning he could get himself and the girl safely back to shore.

He reckoned he was in the water for three to four minutes.

Bennett said the rescue buoy had given him the confidence boost he needed to leap into action.

“That says something about what that tool does.”

The lifesaving device was the brainchild of local Pat Millar, whose cousin Wairongoa ‘Magoo’ Renata perished in a drowning just a few hundred yards from the same spot in 2018.

Far North woman Pat Millar started Operation Flotation to help people rescue their loved ones from the water. Photo / NZME

Millar had installed a simple fishing float, wrote ‘for emergencies’ on it, and hung it in a tree until she could find a better solution.

Since then, the initiative has evolved into a full-blown charitable trust, now known as Doubtless Bay Watch.

It had initially started as Operation Flotation, where flotation devices were installed across the north and as far down as the Coromandel.

The name Operation Flotation was then gifted to Surf Life Saving NZ, and since then, the initiative has found itself embedded at beaches and waterways countrywide.

“There’s over 140 now around the coast of New Zealand,” Millar said.

She felt Bennett’s rescue story was a “textbook reason” for the devices being available.

“Every now and then you get a boost to say ‘Yes, yes, carry on, you’re doing a good thing, you’re not wasting your time’, and that was one of those golden moments.”

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.