GETTING IT DOWN COLD
There’s a lot that Saskatoon firefighters need to know before doing an under-ice dive
Saskatoon firefighter Jeremy Winter pauses prior to diving under the ice on Blackstrap Lake. After completing the extensive training to become certified scuba rescue divers, the firefighters are able to join the department’s water rescue team.
Last week brought frigid temperatures and stinging winds that were even more cutting on the frozen surface of Blackstrap Lake.
The heaters in a large orange tent set up on the ice made it a momentary haven, but some of the firefighters inside weren’t going to be there for long.
Four members of the Saskatoon Fire Department were in the middle of wrapping up training to be certified rescue scuba divers, a process that takes a year and a half and includes six to seven different certifications.
When done, the divers will join the department’s water rescue team, currently 23 members strong, which has divers on call at all times to respond to water rescues or recoveries.
Among the last of the diving courses teaches people how to ice dive. Here’s what the Starphoenix learned by observing that training.
1. Divers have to be ready to go under (almost) any conditions
When firefighters are responding to an emergency call they have to work fast.
The golden hour from the time a call is made to when a rescue is possible can close fast, so firefighters gear up at the station and then try understand the situation they’re heading to while en route in the truck.
“It’s very much kind of organized chaos,” instructor and dive coordinator Brad Baron said. “There are so many variables, you can’t really plan for every type of response.”
Divers will dive in most conditions, except for under an ice shelf in a river. In an emergency call, outside temperature isn’t a factor, but the nearly -35 wind chill last week was nearly the limit for training.
2. Divers deploy at any time
Firefighters also train to dive at night.
“We could be called out at any time, it could be 12 o’clock noon, it could be 12 o’clock midnight. so our divers have got to be ready to go at any time,” Baron said.
3. The tether line is a lifeline
The rope connecting divers to the surface provides them with everything from direction to communication.
Once in the water and away from the entry hole, distance becomes difficult to determine. Divers have to make sure they keep the line taut so people holding the tether has a good idea of where they are.
The people holding the tether — the tenders — communicates with the divers via radio and line pull signals.
If the radio goes down, calland-return tug signals are still a simple, effective form of communication.
One tug from a tender means, ‘Are you OK?’ and a single tug back from the diver is an affirmative.
Two pulls tells the diver to change direction.
4. In most cases, it’s not easy to see
Divers at the training last week had excellent visibility and were able to see beer cans, sunglasses and the occasional whitefish corpse sitting on the lake’s bottom.
But in the South Saskatchewan River, where the trainees dove this summer, visibility tends to be around 50 centimetres. When divers drop down to a river bottom to work their way through the sand, they’re completely dependent on their tender to help them move around safely.
5. Being thorough is crucial
Despite operating under a significant time crunch during an emergency call, procedure is followed closely.
That includes gearing up. Divers go through a preparation checklist that includes everything from measuring tank pressure to checking and double checking seams and zippers — staying dry means staying warm.
When it comes to search and recovery, there was a time when not making a find was disappointing. But if the team follows procedure and does all they can to locate something, it means it’s not there and that’s important information.
“We’ve really had a shift in mindset in terms of success,” dive instructor Brent Lucyshyn said.