Firefighters train underwater

Rome-Floyd County firefighters at Station 4 are wrapping up nearly a year of rescue swimmer training.

On Sunday, two of the 12 started the final module: using a surface-supplied air rig in the YMCA pool. Sgt. Brian Minshew and Cpl. Josh Lockridge spent several hours familiarizing themselves with the technical aspects, including the amount of air and extra weights they’d need to carry when conducting an underwater search on the bottom of a river.

“We’ve broken them down into smaller groups,” trainer Hugh Durden said. “This is really a boat crew.”

Minshew and Lockridge will keep the rig — an air tank with breathing hoses mounted on a float — loaded on the station’s boat at all times. Capt. Mark Jenkins, an expert scuba diver who is also taking the swimmer rescue course, said it allows them to carry out rescues as deep as 30 feet.

“Most of the water here is no deeper than 28 feet,” Jenkins said. “We have some quarries that are several hundred feet, but at that depth it would be a recovery, not a rescue.”

Durden said Rome’s waterways have drawn an increasing number of kayakers, tubers and paddle boarders in recent years.

The Station 4 team has made some river rescues, he noted, but this will be the first group able to do so underwater.

“This is very important,” he said. “You’re talking life and death here.”

Members of the Rome City Commission’s public safety committee heard an overview of the program during their meeting last week.

Division Chief Brad Roberson said four or five firefighters from each shift were chosen for the swimmer rescue course, which covered lifeguard training and open-water operations in full gear before getting to the underwater module.

The program was started last summer, Fire Chief Troy Brock said, in response to more calls from the rivers.

“We had to take this on,” Brock said. “We have a responsibility to protect victims, and our own people too.”

Trainer Hugh Durden shows a weight belt used by rescue swimmers to offset their natural buoyancy during Sunday’s session teaching firefighters how to save people stuck underwater in local rivers.

Diane Wagner / Rome News-Tribune YMCA Aquatics Director Laura Charlier takes an underwater photo of Mark Jenkins in scuba gear during a rescue swimmer training module for Rome-Floyd County firefighters who respond to emergencies on local waterways.

Contributed photo by Laura Charlier ABOVE: Mark Jenkins (left) communicates in hand signs with Josh Lockridge on Sunday during the Rome-Floyd County firefighters’ swimmer rescue training module on using surface-supplied air at the YMCA pool.

Diane Wagner / Rome News-Tribune LEFT: Brian Minshew (left) gets some help with his weight vest from Mark Jenkins during class teaching how to use surface-supplied air rigs to breathe underwater.

Diane Wagner / Rome News-Tribune Brian Minshew (left) and Josh Lockridge, who make up a boat crew, chat at the YMCA pool.

Diane Wagner / RN-T