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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- The Ottumwa Fire Department responded to a water rescue Friday morning in the lagoon just east of the Beach Ottumwa.

When KTVO arrived on the scene, Firefighters were helping the victim out of the water.

“What we had was a female who was fishing from the bank. For some reason she slipped and fell down some steps and landed in the water. She had a pretty significant head injury. We put her on a backboard and put her up the bank onto the backboard,” said Deputy Chief Cory Benge of the Ottumwa Fire Department.

Benge says that the woman was in the water for at least 10 minutes.

The woman was taken by ambulance to Ottumwa Regional Health Center. Her name and age have not been released at this time.

Deputy Chief Benge says that the fire department trained just last week for scenarios like the one they responded to today.

“Every year we train in the water; whether it is an ice rescue, swift water rescue, river rescue, and of course pond rescues. Last week we were training at the beach with our boats. We went over how to put people on a backboard in the water. So a week after we had the training, we had the real thing,” said Benge.

Assisting in the rescue Friday morning were officers from the Ottumwa Police Department and paramedics from Ottumwa Regional.