Fire department responds to injured boater off Novak Reef

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - On Thursday morning the Boca Grande Fire Department responded to a report of an injured man in a boat just off Novak Reef.
Novak Reef is approximately three miles west of the mouth of Little Gasparilla Pass in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fire department responded by boat when the call came in, at approximately 10:40 a.m. When they arrived at the boat they found two men, one who was injured by a hard wave breaking over the boat.

The man was transported from the boat to the dock, where an ambulance took him to the heli-pad on Railroad Avenue. He was then taken by an Aeromed Helicopter to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers.

Response time of the Aeromed Helicopter from their time of call to their landing in Boca Grande was approximately 6 1/2 minutes.