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When someone calls 911, we can't say no, we have to have the answer.
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Time is our enemy.
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If we can cut that time down, that's the difference between life and death.
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To know that a Polaris RANGER could come and save your life. (Music)
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My name is Andy Schafer. I'm a captain on the Nisswa Fire Department.
[01:00:35:12 - 01:00:44:09]
We started using side-by-sides eight years ago. Grass fires in the woods, search and rescue, and medical emergencies deep in the woods.
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When I first started, we didn't have stuff like that. We were taking Crown Vics back in the woods, and now we're able to have a vehicle pulled behind our squad, ready to deploy.
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Well, I originally came through my dispatch of a person that was out turkey hunting. It was on May 17th of 2025.
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They started out early. Nicole and I had gone out to the farm. Same routine. Everything was very normal, so to speak. Everything was going just the way it was supposed to until... My dad was like, "I don't feel good." And that turkey tent that you sit in was just doing circles around me. And, well, it just kept getting continually worse. And I told Nicole, "Call 911 and take the keys out of my pocket."
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Knowing where Jeff's vehicle was positioned, that the ambulance wouldn't make it, so we would need some more immediate rescue efforts. I had dispatch contact Nisswa Fire Department, advising them to bring their utility vehicle out.
We got a page for a hunter with a medical issue, possible heart attack deep in the woods. If you had a stroke, it's all about getting there in time. So if we can get someone within that golden hour, their chances really go through the roof of how they're going to survive.
So then, all of a sudden, I hear some commotion down the trail, and I look, and I see two side-by-sides rounding the corner. The relief that I felt was, I mean, you don't know you're holding your breath until you exhale, right?
[01:02:37:12 - 01:02:56:20]
And they came, and they jumped out, and they pulled them out of the weeds. They did all the things in preparation for the helicopter, and they told me the reason why they had the side-by-sides is because the ground was too soft, too thin, too dense for vehicles to get through, especially a heavy ambulance.
[01:02:57:23 - 01:03:18:04]
Using the side-by-side made the job doable because it allowed us to get where we needed to, where a normal truck could not have made it. Or ambulance definitely was not going back that far. Everything was lined up, and they got what they needed, and in this case, we had a good outcome, because Jeff is still with us.
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We needed to be ready for the next call for service, and time and time again, Polaris UTVs are ready to answer that call.
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It's trusted, it's been proven, and they hold up. In the Public Safety Realm, that's a big deal.
