| May 26, 2007 - Members of the Bedford Fire Department's Dive Team participated in PADI dive training over the Memorial Day weekend. The training was conducted by Rex Dive, a Norwalk, Connecticut PADI scuba training center and was held at Dutch Springs, Pennsylvania, a man made dive training facility that occupies a former limestone quarry. Firefighter Jerome Newman completed his Basic Open Water Certification, while Firefighters Pete Lazaro and Jenaro Reino completed their Advanced Open Water and Dry Suit Diver Certifications. All three are members of the BFD Dive Team, which operates as a Public Safety Search and Recovery Dive Team.
Our goal as a Team is to have as many Advanced divers and dry suit divers as possible. When called on in an emergency, we usually dive in zero visibility waters with no assurance that the water is free of chemicals or other dangerous substances, and that the surrounding homes' septic systems are functioning properly and not polluting the dive location.
Although, fortunately, the BFD is not often called upon to provide dive recovery services, we live in a community covered by picturesque streams, ponds lakes and reservoirs, and we have had our small share of tragedies over the years. The latest significant emergency was the unfortunate drowning of a young man in Blue Heron Lake in June 2006. That incident brought the Dive Teams from Bedford, Somers, Stamford and the NY State Police Dive Team together to work on the recovery operation.
Firefighters Lazaro, Newman and Reino all successfully completed their Certifications, however the training weekend was not without and incident that drove home the reason that they were there. While FF Newman was at another part of the quarry on his first dive, FF Lazaro and FF Reino were just entering the 42 degree water on their first dive when they heard calls for help. It turned out that a diver had gotten onto trouble. Rex Dive Instructor Ray Stephens and another instructor immediately swam out about 30 yards to the diver in trouble and brought him back to shore. FF Lazaro and FF Reino found the diver to be unconscious and, along with two Dutch Springs staff immediately went to work performing CPR and removing the victim's equipment and cutting off his dry suit. Ambulances arrived within 10 minutes, and control of the victim was then handed off to the responding medics. Needless to say, the weekend took on a more serious tone, but training resumed and all three successfully completed their Certifications.
The BFD Dive Team has a complement of 11 divers or various qualification levels, of which 5 have advanced training. The Team relies on non-diver support and EMS personnel from the ranks of the BFD during trainings and in actual emergencies. |
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