we're responsible for our own lives and our health.

[Boater Dan]

Alex:

I am assuming you are from a paid department in Florida. I am with a volunteer fire department team and we are grossly under-funded as are most volunteer organizations. Based on varioius stories I have heard about the canals, rescues, and the resultant problems, I would recommend you HIGHLY petition your higher-ups to provide proper protective equipment. Pipedope had provided you with the essentials. We all tend to take risks. Funky stuff out of a canal should not be part of it.

If you need supporting documentation, I am certain the cross section of personnel involved in this forum can provide you with some ammunition (Don't get excited Gary, it's just a figure of speech) to fire at your superiors.

Dive safe!

Dan

 

[pipedope]

Most of the canals and retention ponds in FL are fine to dive in, at least from a contamination standpoint. There are some exceptions like Lake Apopka where you want full protection, especially if you have to get into the mud at the bottom. Lots of nastys in there.

Most of the ditches and canals here in FL get enough flushing that we don't see the concentration of bad stuff.

Now for intential concentrated water like waste treatment plants and runoff catchments at feedlots all bets are off.

 

[scubaranger]

talking with some of the guys it is normal to get sick and severe sour throut or ear infections after a dive call they tell me this, not as a badge of honor but as one of the side affects. that's why a lot of guys rather not go in unless they now it will be a viable patient and not a body recovery. but I got to tell you my department dive program is far advance then my past department. we have dive gear on every fire and rescue truck if your certified you use it the alarm office is notified in the morning how many divers you have on the truck. when a dive call comes in they send the closest appropiate units. my other department well there system was they had one truck( this was a smaller department but they could of revamp to do the same )if a call came in they send the truck. now problems 1) if those guys who where firefighter/paremedics where on a call well there goes the dive team 2) they would have to go back to the station and switch trucks 3) some times there on scene times was way to long, due to it was on the oppisite side of the city. the guys ment well but the system was just bad.I wasn't a diver at the time for personel reasons. point of the mater is we take our risks and accept the consequences but all in all we are responsible for our lives and our health. thanks.
be safe.
alex t.

 

[6Gill]

Unfortunately way to many departments, we have some here locally, try and pressure their divers into dives that are way beyond their capability. Peer pressure can be one of the worst and most dangerous problems a team can face and your skin has to be thick enough to fight it off.

We are blessed with a Sheriff and an area that if I say NO to a dive it’s NO. I will give them a reason out of courtesy but they will not pressure us into a dive. Sometimes it’s a team discussion that leads to a NO but nobody HAS to make a dive.

There have been days that we had a simple 30’ dive in clear warm water. For whatever reason I didn’t feel right about the dive so I backed out and someone else did it. We all have good and bad days. Use caution on the bad ones and don’t dive, besides we always need topside people.

A lot of people wonder why we have a LEO team instead of letting the Fire Department’s do it.

Simple answer:
We keep our cars 24-7, Fire doesn’t.
We can get into areas sometimes an hour ahead of the fire units due to the rugged terrain.
We are all full time deputies.
Most our rural Fire Departments are still volunteer.
It’s easier to tie us up for hours or days at a time without affecting deployment or equipment.
We have the Marine units.
and
By Law the Sheriff is untimately responsible for all rescue and recovery work.

That’s just some basic stuff.

But we work very well together........They know exactly how to assist us and do a very fine job of it.

Gary D.

i hope that you didn't miss the point that I thought that had I not bowed to this request to recover the boat that I most likely be looking for a job the next day. As I stated I would have had no recourse at all since I was not covered by civil service, etc. Had I been covered by civil service I would have done exactly what you said above. I did try to explain a lot of things to the Sheriff at that time, none of it did much good. I presume that you are covered by civil service and can afford to talk to your Sheriff in that manor.

I'm sure that as I stated before that their are others in the LE diving community not covered by civil service, etc. that will be faced with a situation where if they fail to carry out a request by their Department head that will be looking for a job the next day.

As I said, I sure didn't want to be fired or layed off when I was trying to support my family of 6 and buy a car and house, etc. I didn't think that I had much of a choice here.

One of the other factors in this case was that I was a full time paid Deputy and the rest of the team were divers with a reserve deputy sheriff's commision. So, my importance to him as a diver didn't count for much. He could put out a request and get lot's of volunteers to fill all our shoes. The Reserve Deputy divers were not paid and were volunteers, he had no control over them what so ever. They could tell him no and give no reason. All they had to loose was their reserve deputy sheriff's commision.

Today my old department has a Marine Patrol with a number of boats and full time deputies who are rated divers. (They even get hazardous duty pay.) They are also covered by civil service. They could and most likely would, do just as you have outlined above which I agree with if you are covered as they are.

I just hope that those that are not covered and are faced with this type of decision are able to get through it without the loss of their job.