Here is today's news report about the dive team and its response.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/273/story/73628.html
For dive team mission was recovery, not rescue
Sheriff, experts say divers at scene where 5 kids died faced difficult, dangerous conditions
By Patrick Orr - Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 03/01/07
Gem County Sheriff Clint Short praised the efforts of his dive team Wednesday, saying deputies got to a submerged car in a frigid pond near Blacks Canyon Dam as soon as safely possible Tuesday morning.
Some people have questioned why it took the dive team about two hours to get in the water, find a submerged car and extract five children, ages 12 to 15, trapped inside. Meagan, Tyler and Kyle Walker and Brooke and Brant Probst drowned, according to coroner's reports.
Short said he understands the concern, but the deputies on the dive team got to the site and into the water as soon as they could. They coped with hazardous road conditions and then had to get into their gear before diving into the cold, opaque water.
"I thought our team did an outstanding job," Short said. It was their first response to a call for an underwater recovery since the six-man team formed in October.
The industry standard for underwater cold weather rescue is about one hour. After that, the chances of reviving a victim are minimal, and most dive teams, including Boise Fire Department's the biggest in Southwest Idaho switch to "recovery" mode, emphasizing diver safety and careful removal of victims, training experts say.
According to Short, dive team leader Lt. Dave Timony and Gem County dispatch logs, it took the dive team somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes to get their equipment to the accident site, suit up and get into the water.
Timony said when his divers got to the scene Tuesday, all they knew was that a car was in the water and might have occupants inside. The water was 38 degrees and opaque. They couldn't see the car.
"We were officially responding to a recovery," Timony said Wednesday.
When the two divers got into the water, it took several minutes to find the car and mark it with floating buoys. The water was so dark the divers could not see into the car, so they attached a tow chain to the bumper so it could be pulled out of the pond by a tow truck.
As soon as the car was out of the water, the unresponsive youths were removed from the car and taken to Walter Knox Memorial Hospital in Emmett, officials said. Efforts to resuscitate them were unsuccessful.
According to dispatch logs, the first report that a car was in the pond was called in to Gem County dispatch at 7:32 a.m. Timony, who was called at home at 7:38 a.m., arrived at the scene with the team's diving equipment at 8:19 a.m. He said it took his two divers about 30 minutes to get their suits on and go through safety checks before they got into the water.
It is unclear from dispatch logs how long it took divers to find the car and crews to remove it, but the first of the five youths was taken from the accident site by ambulance at 9:54 a.m.
Pete Gannon, owner of Dive Rescue International in Fort Collins, Colo., a national diving certification firm that trains police and fire agencies, estimated it would take a dive team about 15 minutes to get gear on, but they might take longer once the critical hour passed and they were in "recovery" mode.
"Anything after that (an hour), you slow down," Gannon said. "There is no room for mistakes down there. If you get tangled in something you're dead."
Brandon Wilding, an emergency room doctor at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, agreed in general terms that the one-hour window is accurate. Cold water can slow a body's metabolism to the point that people can be resuscitated who have been in cold water for 45 minutes to an hour, Wilding said. Past that, possibilities for a resuscitation go down dramatically, he said.
Boise Fire Department Deputy Chief Dave Hanneman said he does not remember Boise's dive team ever rescuing anybody who was under water for more than a few minutes but added that the team trains under the assumption that it could revive somebody who has been underwater for up to an hour.
The Gem County dive team includes six deputies and was formed in October, although many of the deputies had been diving for years, Timony said. The team just returned from dry-suit training in Nevada over the weekend and is certified by PADI the Professional Association of Diving Instruction.
Only one of the deputies was working at the time of Tuesday's accident, but they were all able to respond immediately from home, Timony said.
The Gem County dive team is one of only a few formal teams in southwest Idaho. Boise Fire Department has the biggest and best staffed team, with 30 active members, including at least three members on duty at any time of the day or night, Hanneman said. Boise Fire Department has a dedicated truck, a boat and personal watercraft for its dive team.
The Boise dive team has practiced cold water and under-the-ice rescue and recovery efforts, he said.
In most cases, the dive team can respond to most parts of Boise within several minutes, Hanneman said. It also responds to water rescues anywhere in Ada County and can reach Lucky Peak to the east and Swan Falls Dam to the west within an hour, Hanneman said.
There are certified divers in Horseshoe Bend and with Eagle and Nampa fire departments and the Canyon County Sheriff's Office who can help with rescue or recovery situations, but the main local dive team is the Boise Fire Department's, officials said Wednesday. Contact reporter Patrick Orr at porr@idahostatesman.com or 373-6619.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/273/story/73628.html
For dive team mission was recovery, not rescue
Sheriff, experts say divers at scene where 5 kids died faced difficult, dangerous conditions
By Patrick Orr - Idaho Statesman
Edition Date: 03/01/07
Gem County Sheriff Clint Short praised the efforts of his dive team Wednesday, saying deputies got to a submerged car in a frigid pond near Blacks Canyon Dam as soon as safely possible Tuesday morning.
Some people have questioned why it took the dive team about two hours to get in the water, find a submerged car and extract five children, ages 12 to 15, trapped inside. Meagan, Tyler and Kyle Walker and Brooke and Brant Probst drowned, according to coroner's reports.
Short said he understands the concern, but the deputies on the dive team got to the site and into the water as soon as they could. They coped with hazardous road conditions and then had to get into their gear before diving into the cold, opaque water.
"I thought our team did an outstanding job," Short said. It was their first response to a call for an underwater recovery since the six-man team formed in October.
The industry standard for underwater cold weather rescue is about one hour. After that, the chances of reviving a victim are minimal, and most dive teams, including Boise Fire Department's the biggest in Southwest Idaho switch to "recovery" mode, emphasizing diver safety and careful removal of victims, training experts say.
According to Short, dive team leader Lt. Dave Timony and Gem County dispatch logs, it took the dive team somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes to get their equipment to the accident site, suit up and get into the water.
Timony said when his divers got to the scene Tuesday, all they knew was that a car was in the water and might have occupants inside. The water was 38 degrees and opaque. They couldn't see the car.
"We were officially responding to a recovery," Timony said Wednesday.
When the two divers got into the water, it took several minutes to find the car and mark it with floating buoys. The water was so dark the divers could not see into the car, so they attached a tow chain to the bumper so it could be pulled out of the pond by a tow truck.
As soon as the car was out of the water, the unresponsive youths were removed from the car and taken to Walter Knox Memorial Hospital in Emmett, officials said. Efforts to resuscitate them were unsuccessful.
According to dispatch logs, the first report that a car was in the pond was called in to Gem County dispatch at 7:32 a.m. Timony, who was called at home at 7:38 a.m., arrived at the scene with the team's diving equipment at 8:19 a.m. He said it took his two divers about 30 minutes to get their suits on and go through safety checks before they got into the water.
It is unclear from dispatch logs how long it took divers to find the car and crews to remove it, but the first of the five youths was taken from the accident site by ambulance at 9:54 a.m.
Pete Gannon, owner of Dive Rescue International in Fort Collins, Colo., a national diving certification firm that trains police and fire agencies, estimated it would take a dive team about 15 minutes to get gear on, but they might take longer once the critical hour passed and they were in "recovery" mode.
"Anything after that (an hour), you slow down," Gannon said. "There is no room for mistakes down there. If you get tangled in something you're dead."
Brandon Wilding, an emergency room doctor at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, agreed in general terms that the one-hour window is accurate. Cold water can slow a body's metabolism to the point that people can be resuscitated who have been in cold water for 45 minutes to an hour, Wilding said. Past that, possibilities for a resuscitation go down dramatically, he said.
Boise Fire Department Deputy Chief Dave Hanneman said he does not remember Boise's dive team ever rescuing anybody who was under water for more than a few minutes but added that the team trains under the assumption that it could revive somebody who has been underwater for up to an hour.
The Gem County dive team includes six deputies and was formed in October, although many of the deputies had been diving for years, Timony said. The team just returned from dry-suit training in Nevada over the weekend and is certified by PADI the Professional Association of Diving Instruction.
Only one of the deputies was working at the time of Tuesday's accident, but they were all able to respond immediately from home, Timony said.
The Gem County dive team is one of only a few formal teams in southwest Idaho. Boise Fire Department has the biggest and best staffed team, with 30 active members, including at least three members on duty at any time of the day or night, Hanneman said. Boise Fire Department has a dedicated truck, a boat and personal watercraft for its dive team.
The Boise dive team has practiced cold water and under-the-ice rescue and recovery efforts, he said.
In most cases, the dive team can respond to most parts of Boise within several minutes, Hanneman said. It also responds to water rescues anywhere in Ada County and can reach Lucky Peak to the east and Swan Falls Dam to the west within an hour, Hanneman said.
There are certified divers in Horseshoe Bend and with Eagle and Nampa fire departments and the Canyon County Sheriff's Office who can help with rescue or recovery situations, but the main local dive team is the Boise Fire Department's, officials said Wednesday. Contact reporter Patrick Orr at porr@idahostatesman.com or 373-6619.
