Autumn Chill Is Perfect Beach Weather for Tolland County Rescue Divers

The late autumn chill sinking over the hills of Connecticut each November keeps the average beachgoer well away from inland waters. Yet it has little such effect on members of the Tolland County Mutual Aid Service Rescue Divers.

Divers and support personnel from several county fire departments descended on Sandy Beach on the south shore of Crystal Lake on the morning of Nov. 14 to hone their search-and-rescue skills. This expertise will be needed in the event of a water-related emergency within the 13 county towns or adjoining communities.

Diver John Streiber, of Crystal Lake Fire Department, was first into the water. Streiber, who first learned about scuba diving in 1978 while in the U.S. Navy, reported that visibility at 10 feet down was about twice that distance and the water was a balmy 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Most of the water we dive in, you can't see your hands," said team Commander John Roache, who was observing and critiquing the drill. Roache is a member of Andover Fire Department and also serves at that town's fire marshal.

The dive team, whose members provide most of their own dive equipment, handles an average of four or five emergency calls a year. The team was called to the scene of a reported drowning in May at Gay City State Park in Hebron and to the search for a 9-year-old girl reported missing while swimming at Wilderness Lake Campground in Willington in June. In the latter case, a dive team member found the girl within five minutes of entering the water. She was later pronounced dead at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs.

The Tolland County Mutual Aid Service Rescue Divers team was organized in 1960, Roache said, and has grown steadily since. The team is trained in still and rapid water rescue.  Its roster of volunteers includes 29 divers and 31 surface support personnel, from area fire departments, including some outside Tolland County. County departments with dive team members include Andover, Ashford, Chaplin, Ellington, Mansfield, Somers, Coventry, Stafford, Tolland, Vernon and Willington. Not everyone shows up at every call; who shows up depends a lot on where within the county's 410 square miles an incident occurs.

On Sunday, Streiber and Diver Robert Ludwig, also of Crystal Lake Fire Department, practiced a pendulum sweep drill, in which they swim out a measured distance of 125 feet from shore, pulling a nylon tether line behind them. When they reach that distance, the divers descend to the bottom and begin their search, moving in an arc that is created by the line. The line was controlled at the surface by a tender–Alfred Spain of Stafford who is also a diver. The tender is in constant communication with the diver, either by a hardwire voice communication system or old-fashioned tugs on the tether.

"Being able to talk is a bonus," Roache joked about the voice communication that is possible between tender and diver. He said the dive team still teaches the traditional dive communication of tether tugs: 1 tug – are you okay? Two tugs – stop. Three tugs – left. And so on. That method is tried and true, cheaper and less likely to fail.

"We try to keep it simple," said Assistant Commander Robert Chernuk, a member of the Ashford Fire Department, who was overseeing the surface support operations for Sunday's drill.

The importance of rescue personnel safety was stressed from the start of the drill. Everyone within 25 feet of the water donned a lifejacket. Just as in an actual emergency, identification badges of everyone involved were collected at the start and would be returned to their owners at the end of the drill. This ensures no one is left behind.

Roache said the drills take place at various locations throughout the county, with host fire departments arranging for backup services including emergency medical and ambulance standby in the event of an emergency among the rescuers.

The divers recovered a number of skeet targets left behind on the bottom of the lake after a rescue diver training program that had taken place at the beach in September.

Ellington Volunteer Ambulance Corps provided a crew and ambulance for the drill. EMT Jennifer Gallup said Sunday's drill was her first official day on duty with the corps.

"I have so much respect for these guys for doing this," Gallup said as the divers prepared to enter the water.

A short time later, feeling the effects of the morning chill, Gallup asked of no one in particular: "Why are we all at the beach? It's cold outside!"