Emergency response criticized after drownings in rural N.L. town

The family of a brother and sister who drowned in the central Newfoundland town of Springdale last month says the area's emergency response system is not good enough.

David Froude, 30, and Veletta Misener, 43, died after falling from a boat tied to a wharf on June 26.

There is no 911 emergency telephone system in Springdale and, when a resident called for help after seeing the pair in the water, the call was routed to the RCMP in St. John's.

The siblings' brother-in-law, Peter Iversen, said a police officer in Springdale was dispatched to the scene.

"He made some rescue attempts. He searched for floatation equipment," said Iversen.

"Then, after several minutes of not being able to do anything, he then decided to call fire and rescue."

Iverson said the local volunteer fire department got to the site quickly, but too late. The RCMP dispatcher should have called fire and rescue in the first place, he said.

"If dispatch in St. John's had appraised the situation— understood the situation —and then relayed the call to the fire and rescue in Springdale, they would probably have been there in time to save their lives," said Iverson.

"The RCMP officers are not trained or equipped to do in-the-water rescues. They're there, I think, primarily for criminal investigations and things like that. But when somebody's in the water, it's the fire and rescue that have the equipment— have the training— and they can deal with the situation."

There is no 911 system in most of rural Newfoundland, something the province is now in the process of reviewing.