Yesterday our dive team was called to Holland Mass. just over the border from Connecticut for a recovery. I was suprised to hear us going out of state since we do not ususally do this. My guess is that the Hamilton Reservoir is so large that they were concerned this could have been a prolonged search.
I do not have all the information but apparently a Grandfather was in a canoe which over turned. His teenage grandson attempted to rescue him from shore but the water was still around 40 F and he could not do it. We were called in and had a great response for a week day afternoon. I was responding from the farthest point in our county. When I arrived in staging we already had 4 divers dressed and ready to go in the water. We had another 4 in staging and a buch of surface support. Myself and another diver from my department were on our way from staging when the found the grandfather. It sounds like Mass also had a good response from their divers and they were the ones who did the recovery.
Here is a link to the story from a local news station.
http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/7621926.html
Here is a link to info on the reservoir. 412 ares is pretty good size compared to the smaller lakes and ponds we are used to. It sounded like we had good eyewitness reports to help target the search.
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_pond/dfwhami.pdf
It is tragic that anyone has to die but yet again no life jacket out solo in still very cold water. This is why I think we are not just a reactionary agency that responde when call but we need to take our stories out to the public and try to help educate them as best we can in a proactive effort to try and prevent this type of tragedy.
My prayers go out the the family of the victim and to the divers who did the recovery. Great job guys.
Mark
I do not have all the information but apparently a Grandfather was in a canoe which over turned. His teenage grandson attempted to rescue him from shore but the water was still around 40 F and he could not do it. We were called in and had a great response for a week day afternoon. I was responding from the farthest point in our county. When I arrived in staging we already had 4 divers dressed and ready to go in the water. We had another 4 in staging and a buch of surface support. Myself and another diver from my department were on our way from staging when the found the grandfather. It sounds like Mass also had a good response from their divers and they were the ones who did the recovery.
Here is a link to the story from a local news station.
http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/7621926.html
Here is a link to info on the reservoir. 412 ares is pretty good size compared to the smaller lakes and ponds we are used to. It sounded like we had good eyewitness reports to help target the search.
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_pond/dfwhami.pdf
It is tragic that anyone has to die but yet again no life jacket out solo in still very cold water. This is why I think we are not just a reactionary agency that responde when call but we need to take our stories out to the public and try to help educate them as best we can in a proactive effort to try and prevent this type of tragedy.
My prayers go out the the family of the victim and to the divers who did the recovery. Great job guys.
Mark
