Awesome U/W Rescue by Public Safety Divers

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BladesRobinson

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KUDOS TO THIS DIVE TEAM!!! THEY WILL LIKELY BE HONORED AT THE 2012 INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY DIVER CONVERENCE IN OCTOBER FOR THE MOST DRAMATIC RESCUE OF THE YEAR, UNLESS SOMEONE KNOWS OF A PSD RESCUE THAT IS MORE DRAMATIC THAN THIS ONE. (Let me know if there is another worthy team!)


STAMFORD -- When Stamford Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief Trevor Roach got to an overturned boat about 50 minutes after it crashed into the Stamford Harbor seawall at 11:20 p.m. Sunday, he could hear the calls for help from a man and woman trapped in an air pocket in the bow of the boat.

"I could hear muffled cries and banging," said Roach, who skippered the Stamford Fire & Rescue Department boat to the wreck.
By the time they got there, the 27-foot Sea Ray driven by New Rochelle, N.Y., firefighter Keith Morris had drifted about 100 yards into the harbor from where it hit the east seawall with only about 12 feet of the boat's hull showing above water.
Roach tied up to an Oyster Bay, N.Y., police boat that was first on the scene and began a rescue operation unlike any in the dive team's more than 20-year history.
Two people -- 25-year-old Dinorah Viaira and 29-year-old Anthony Basile -- were trapped in the air pocket.
"We have never done one similar to this," he said. "We have never had that before. We have never had live and alert victims. The psychology of the victim as you are trying to move them, it's a whole new game."
Keith Morris, 30, was killed in the crash. Following an autopsy Tuesday, the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner ruled that Morris died by accidental drowning.
His body was found 55 feet from the accident scene in 14 to 16 feet of water a little more than 12 hours later.
Two other passengers -- Drew Morris, 29, the driver's brother, and 25-year-old Kristina Caldararo -- landed in the open water and were plucked out by Oyster Bay police.
Roach said that it took rescue diver Joe Maida at least 10 minutes to work his way through a dislodged Bimini top, broken dashboard and windshield and through the 18-inch- wide companionway entrance to the cabin.
Viaira, who got trapped inside the 14-foot long cabin, had been looking for her cellphone below when the boat struck the seawall. At the same time, Basile flew through the companionway and into the cabin on impact, Roach said.
When Maida got inside, he took off his mask and talked to the two, assuring them they would be saved.
Basile told Maida, "If you don't get me out of here, my mother will kill you and you don't know my mother," Roach said.
Because the two would have to swim through 20 to 25 feet of water and debris to get out of the pitch black cabin, Maida left the two to get a pony tank of air -- a cylinder about 20 inches long and five inches in diameter -- which would allow the two to breath as they exited the boat.
Meanwhile Darien police officer Dan Ehret was in the water with only mask fins and his own pony tank and made himself available to assist in the rescue.
Viaira was the first to make the short dive, but as Maida helped guide her through the cabin, she panicked as her face hit the water and swam back into the rapidly diminishing safety of the air pocket.
Unable to get her back onto the pony tank, Maida and second diver Bill O'Connell helped Basile out. Basile then made the dive without difficulty with assistance from Ehret.
Still panicked upon the divers' return, Viaira refused to leave the quickly narrowing air pocket, Roach said.
With both divers with her, "We could hear her yelling through the boat,' no, no, no, no,'" Roach said.
For the next half hour, the divers coaxed a frightened Viaira until their own air supplies and the air inside the cabin were close to running out.
By that time, Ehret's pony tank had run out and he was making free dives to the companionway to help guide her through.
At that point, the divers put the pony tank's regulator on Viaira's mouth and pulled her through the cabin and tangled cockpit to safety.
Once on the surface, "She was frantic, confused, but still able to carry on a conversation. She was scared, cold and tired," Ehret said, adding that he swam her over to the Darien police boat where she stayed about 10 minutes before being transferred to the Stamford fire boat.
Roach said the only injury was to O'Connell, who cut his hand on some debris inside the cabin and needed eight stitches to close the gash.
"I did what I could do at the time to assist. That guy Billy, he was in the cabin with them with full gear and a cut hand. He was tremendous," Ehret said.
"We saved two lives." Roach said. "We put the dive team back in to operation in 1989 or 1990 and the department is very proud of the actions of our divers."
Stamford Police Marine Sgt. Peter Wolff, who coordinated the police department's role in the rescue mission, said he was impressed by the composure shown by Viaira and Basile.
"I can't believe what those people must have gone through," he said. "That is a real horror. It's kind of like being buried alive as far as I'm concerned."
Ted Jankowski, the city's director of public safety, health and welfare, praised Maida and O'Connell and the rest of the team for their courage and professionalism in the rescue.
"The Stamford Fire and Rescue Department Divers displayed courage and professionalism maneuvering through the wreckage to enter the confined space in order to save the trapped occupants," Jankowski said. "They put their own lives at great risk. If it were not for their efforts the trapped victims would have surely perished."


Read more: Divers describe dramatic rescue in fatal Stamford boat accident - StamfordAdvocate
 
Those guys truly deserve it, ours was only a recovery.
 
Those guys deserve a big round of applause, it takes real strength of character to push yourself through all of that for two complete strangers!
 
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