Man’s rescue device test

[Lee Borgersen]

Coast Guard puts Duluth man’s rescue device to the test

Apr 3, 2014

Ron Lanthier’s life-saving idea began in his garage and ended up in the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard at Brighton Beach on Thursday.

  Way to go!......
The Duluth resident invented the “Arm-Loc.” It’s a small, one-size-fits-all device that tightly locks onto and inflates around a drowning person’s arm. It serves dual purposes: It’s a flotation device and has a rope attached for rescuers to pull the victim to safety.

“It’s different from anything we have used before,” said Tom Crossmon, captain of the St. Louis County Search and Rescue Squad. “This certainly is a great resource.”

Seeing a television report of a young woman drowning in a flood sparked Lanthier’s idea.

That same day, he went to a building supply store to buy components so he could start building the prototype in his garage.  

“I was watching this TV show, and they showed a young woman drowning in a flood,” Lanthier said. “The rescue team worked hard to keep the girl from drowning.”

On Thursday, the Coast Guard and the Duluth Fire Department performed a test run in Lake Superior to see how the device would work in icy water. Before the Arm-Loc was tested, firefighters and Coast Guard members practiced their own method first. Several Coast Guard members pretended to be victims drowning in the water while firefighters used paddle boards, rafts and airboats to try and save them. Then the crews tested rescue operations using the Arm-Loc.

“The first ice out on the lake and the last ice are usually the most dangerous,” Coast Guard Master Chief Robert Pump said. “We practice rescues all the time. Luckily, people have been pretty safe this winter.”

“Coast Guard, firefighters and first responders are typically amazed when they see this product,” said Connie Sylvester, CEO of Water Rescue Innovations. “There’s nothing else out there like this.”

The Arm-Loc also is useful for more than just water rescues. It will work after avalanches and for mountain rescues, too.

“There is a huge market for this product,” Sylvester said. “People can use it fishing, sailing, rapid water and riding the snowmobile down the river. You can use the Arm-Loc over and over again.”

Lanthier and Sylvester are working to improve the product. They are adding a light for night rescues and working to attach a radio to the device in order to communicate with the victim.



St. Louis County Rescue uses an airboat during an ice rescue training exercise in Lake Superior off Brighton Beach on Thursday to quickly reach and ferry back stranded anglers on the ice. U.S. Coast Guard members, seen in the distance, played the part of stranded anglers.