Multiple Agencies Respond to Two Rescues On Vessels in Baldwin County in Two Days
By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
September 17, 2025
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. Two emergencies on vessels in Baldwin County in two days showed the excellent response and work of area first responders.
The first call for help was on Monday, September 15, 2025, at around 12:45 p.m. from a commercial fishing vessel requesting help from the U.S. Coast Guard and local emergency services because a person onboard the vessel was having a cardiac arrest.
The US Coast Guard launched a boat from Dauphin Island, Marine police responded, and other emergency services were dispatched to the Fort Morgan Marina, where the patient was being transported to.
The Fort Morgan Fire Department and EMS were among those that responded.
A second rescue came just a day later when a tugboat Captain had a medical emergency in Orange Beach.
Emergency rescue personnel and firefighters from the Orange Beach Fire Department responded to the Intracoastal Waterway for a medical emergency where a person inside the vessel’s wheelhouse was in distress and unable to walk.
OBFD brought in their ladder truck and stretched out their ladder to move the patient from the tugboat to the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway. Once secured, the patient was immediately transferred to Rescue 3 for transport to the hospital.
An Orange Beach Fire Department spokesperson stated that it was a unique method of accessing the small area on the vessel, which saved valuable time.
Fire officials later credited Lieutenant Rye and the crew for their ability to adapt under pressure. While removing a patient from a boat is not a daily occurrence, the department emphasized that training and teamwork played a large role in getting the patient the help that was needed.
Routinely, medical emergencies happen both on pleasure boats and commercial fishing vessels in Baldwin and Mobile Counties.
Luckily, the US Coast Guard has resources readily available throughout the area, and our local fire departments are frequently dispatched to calls for help, drownings, boat crashes, and vessel fires.
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