Memorable and engaging
Sigurður Kristófer McQuillan Óskarsson. Photo/Sent to mbl.is
Members of the rescue teams at Landsbjörg are now mourning a good friend after the fatal accident on November 3, when Sigurður Kristófer McQuillan Óskarsson died during training at Tungufljót River.
Óskarsson was the chairman of the Kyndill rescue team in Mosfellsbær and had come into the job with great energy, according to his partner. He was 36 years old and is survived by his fiancee and parents.
It was not long since Sigurður started training for recruits at the rescue team Kyndill, or in 2020, but he quickly became very active in the job. One of his rookie coaches says that Óskarsson was particularly memorable. The first thing that caught the coach's attention was how smiling and positive Sigurður was at the first meeting. He says that he gradually noticed that Óskarsson had a good dose of hyperactivity and the rescue team benefited from the energy because he went briskly to the work that needed to be done each time.
According to the newspaper's interviewees at Landsbjörg, many people were shocked when the sad news arrived that Óskarsson had died during training. Rescue team personnel should be offered trauma care and other appropriate resources to work through the trauma. Fatal accidents have been rare for the rescue teams in the last 50 years.
Óskarsson during a demanding rescue team exercise. Photo/Landsbjörg
At Óskarsson's funeral on Monday, November 18, his friends from the rescue team will stand as a guard of honor, but many people want to honor his memory in some way, according to the interviewee of the newspaper. Óskarsson obviously enjoyed the job and his enthusiasm was contagious at Kyndill. "It goes without saying that everyone in Kyndill is so grateful to have met you and we are better people as a result," one of his friends wrote, among other things, in online memorials.
Difficult exercises are part of the training
Óskarsson died during training in a rapid, as it is called. Within Landsbjörg's Accident Prevention Association, various types of training take place so that people can be ready to deal with the tasks that await the rescue teams. They can be extremely demanding, as the job involves going out into the storm as ordinary citizens go into the warmth, as a rescue worker put it to the newspaper. The exercise at Tungufljót River those days must have been standard training in rescuing people from rapids, but the incident is still under investigation.
