DiveOps257
New
Hi all. My Fire Department recently resurrected our Dive Rescue Team after an 11 year hiatus. We have all new members as all previous have retired. That being said, we still have much to learn and improve on. I was hoping some would share how their teams respond/staff/equip and if any teams are similar to ours out there. We are a relatively small department in S. FL with 4 stations (2 Quints, 2 Engines, 5 Rescues and a Battalion Van). Our city has several major waterway canals, numerous lakes, the majority being natural spring fed. We have 12 active divers, all with a minimum of DR1 from DRI on a standard 24 hr. 3 shift rotation. We only operate for rescue dives, our PD responds for all recoveries. We had a full year of training before going operational in October of 2008. In the 4 short months of our activation we have had 3 call outs in our city; 1 car into a lake with no occupants inside (stolen vehicle), 1 car off a turnpike bridge into a canal (also unoccupied), and a 1 year old drowning in a canal (I personally made the rescue in under 3 minutes of arrival on scene (the child sadly passed in the hospital later). With that being said we seem to be a pretty busy team. My questions for you are the following:
I know this is a pretty long post, but I didn't want to create a plethora of seperate posts and seem like I'm flooding the boards. I'm always up for any suggestions or words of wisdom that any can share. Thanks and stay safe!
- For smaller departments with limited personnel and full time staffing, how do you staff your dive team members? What apparatus and how many members? For us (4 per shift) we do not have the fundings or personnel YET to have a dedicated full time dive truck. so far I have placed 2 sets of gear on 2 separate rescue trucks (1 east and 1 west in the city) to be able to respond to calls quickly regardless of location. I also have 1 Brownies Rapid Entry System on each of our 2 quints and 2 engines and our BC Van. How does this sound to you and do you have any recommendations for improvements?
- Currently we use oceanic BCs for our primary search and safety divers. Do you use standard commercial BCs or do you use specifically designed BCs for public safety divers? What are the pros and cons of using either, beyond the obvious that one is specifically for us?
- We currently have an adaptive staffing for our "dive trucks". We have one rescue designated as our dive truck and the other just happens to have gear on it since a fair amount of divers have bids at that station and are able to respond if the primary rescue is already on a call and unavailable. (Both rescues respond to all dive calls when available). Currently, due to kelly days, vacations, holidays, sick time, we never seem to have all 4 divers on staff everyday in their bids, or we have other divers from other shifts on different apparatus (stand-ins/overtime) and do not always have 2 divers on each of the two "dive trucks", but instead have 1 diver on the dive truck and 1 on an engine/quint. When that situation arises we have to alert dispatch (whom always seem to mess things up when you need them) what units need to be dispatched in order to have a "operational" dive team for a call. How do your departments solve this problem, short of having a dedicated dive truck since we do not have the funding/support for that yet? Do you have any suggestions?
I know this is a pretty long post, but I didn't want to create a plethora of seperate posts and seem like I'm flooding the boards. I'm always up for any suggestions or words of wisdom that any can share. Thanks and stay safe!
