LAFD Divers Participate in NFPA Public Safety Dive Training

Twelve members of the LAFD participated in NFPA Public Safety Dive Training.  The training was held November 22-23 and was hosted by the LAFD dive program.  The training certified the members to meet NFPA standards in Dry Suit, Full-Face Mask and Contaminated Water Operations.  "This training is the first in a series of NFPA Public Safety Dive Training that eventually all LAFD dive team members will be receiving" says Dive Team Administrator, Battalion Chief Ray Gomez.  "Aligning our dive team to meet NFPA standards is one of our highest priorities for 2011", Gomez continues.

The training was a two day comprehensive course that was presented by Emergency Response Dive International (ERDI) and was instructed by Captain Chuck Herman, Tempe AZ, Fire Department and Jeff Smith, ERDI.  The class consisted of 4 hours classroom, 8 hours confined water (pool), 4 hours open water and a 4 hour homework assignment.  "It was demanding physically, mentally and academically" said Todd Hix, Supervising Mate, Fire Station 111-C.

Additional classes to be held in the near future include PSD I, PSD II as well as a number of other Spec Op's.  "Participating in these classes and obtaining the certifications that accompany them will bring our dive program to a whole new level of operation.  This NFPA training will qualify the dive team to compete for possible federal grants that can further advance the program to achieving a FEMA Type 1 resource rating" claims Chief Gomez.

Blacked Out Skills Testing- Bill Evans 38-C, Instructor Jeff Smith ERDI evaluating his operation

Super Mate Todd Hix Entanglement Skills Test

Basic Op's- Mate Dave Bender leads another diver in a basic op's drill

Public Safety Diver Dies in Training Accident

A Virginia State Police trooper who died Tuesday after a deep-water training exercise in Lake Anna was one of the newest members of the department's Search and Recovery Team but was considered a skilled diver with no known health problems, authorities said.  Since joining the 20-officer specialty team about a year ago, trooper Mark D. Barrett, 41, of Midlothian had participated in several dive and rescue operations, in addition to completing regular training exercises three days a month and a full week once every quarter, said Sgt. Mitchell Smith, his supervisor.

After Barrett expressed interest in the assignment, "we brought him over to the training academy, took him to the pool and gave him some experience prior to even testing for the team," Smith said yesterday during a media briefing. "We realized he had the skills, knowledge and ability to do a great job."

On Tuesday, Barrett was among 16 Search and Recovery Team members participating in routine diving exercises in 75 feet of water in the southeastern portion of Lake Anna on the Louisa County side.  "They were tasked with just a very simple [maneuver]," Smith said.

They followed a line to the bottom of the lake, made one pass on a search line below and resurfaced following another line to the top. "The whole training evolution would have taken less than 10 minutes," Smith said.

Barrett was resurfacing with his "dive buddy" -- a fellow trooper -- when Barrett became unresponsive, said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller.  Barrett's dive buddy immediately helped him rise to the surface and signaled for help from other divers. They lifted Barrett onto the team boat and began administering CPR as the boat returned to shore. The Louisa County Volunteer Rescue Squad continued aid as they transported Barrett to Henrico Doctors' Hospital, where he died.

Barrett is the department's first dive team member to die in the line of duty since the unit was established in 1962, Geller said. An autopsy is being conducted to determine his cause of death.

Barrett's diving equipment appeared to be functioning properly after being examined by investigators. "We have no reason to believe there was any malfunction on the part of the equipment," Geller said.  The equipment is being sent to an independent lab for further testing, she added.

Smith said Barrett had dived at that same location and at a similar depth on other occasions.

The trooper was physically active and appeared to be in good health, Smith added.  He participated in an off-duty, indoor soccer team and had started training to run a marathon, Smith said.  "I noticed a marked improvement in his physical abilities," Smith said. "He started to seriously consider his diet and his general good health."

Barrett was assigned to patrol in the Richmond/Henrico County area. His survivors include a wife, a 16-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son.

"He was a good trooper, a very devoted father," Smith said. "Mark was the type of guy if you had a special assignment you needed to get done, he would do the assignment. He would do exactly what you asked him, and he would do the job well."

Local Dive Casualties 

Local Diver Found Dead On Yukon Wreck Off San Diego

  
Diver dies after getting caught in rocks in Laguna

Another Laguna diver dies

Lobster diver dies in San Diego 

Man dies in Redondo Beach diving accident

Scuba Diver Dies Off Palos Verdes Peninsula

Body Of Missing Scuba Diver Found Near Underwater Cave

LAFD Sonar Assists in Search Rescue and Recovery

A body located in Long Beach with sonar

The LAFD maintains and operates two types of marine sonar that assists in search, rescue and recovery.  Boat 2 operates an Edgetech Towfish Side Scan Sonar while Boat 4 operates a Kongsberg Mesotech Mechanically Scanned Sonar.  Both provide a broad range of versatility in the mapping and locating of submerged objects or victims.

About Sonar

Sonar, also written SONAR, is formally an acronym for Sound Navigation and Ranging. It connotes an acoustic system that can be used as an aid to navigation and that can determine the range, or distance, to objects, also called targets. The range r to a single target is determined by measuring the time of flight t of an acoustic signal, or ping, from its transmission to the reception of the echo,  Originally, development of sonar was spurred by the sinking of the “Titanic” through collision with an iceberg. The intention of the development was to devise an underwater collision-avoidance method. As the term is currently used, sonar refers to a system that can determine the range and direction to objects in the water column as well as boundary surfaces such as the sea floor.  The essential elements of sonar are (1) a transducer, (2) electronics to control the excitation of the transducer and reception of echoes, including their amplification and other processing, and (3) a display. Implicit in this definition is control or knowledge of the orientation of the transducer.

LAFD Towfish Side Scan Sonar 

FF Matt Fistonich prepares the towfish for deployment

A side scan sonar system uses acoustic energy to image the seafloor. The system consists of a self-contained sound source and receiver, housed in a submersible body that is towed from a surface vessel. The subsurface unit, or "towfish", transmits and receives acoustic energy in a wide band across the track of the towfish, and transmits the signal to a topside processor. The towfish is equipped with a linear array of transducers that emit and receive an acoustic energy pulse in a specific frequency range. The strength of the acoustic return varies with changes in the characteristics of the seafloor. In general, a seafloor with rough texture, such as gravel or boulders, will produce more backscatter in the return signal, resulting in higher amplitude. This pattern results in lighter shades of gray on the resulting side scan image. Smoother texture, such as a sand or mud-dominated seafloor, returns a darker image. As the towfish transverses the survey area, a strip image is produced by the processor. These strip images are then georeferenced and spatially integrated into a mosaic that represents the acoustic character of the seafloor.         

LAFD Mesotech Sonar

A marker references the location

It's design is targeted at bottom clearance and is ideal for body recovery and applications where data clarity supersedes any other requirement. This sonar is used from a fixed position and provides the ability locate and clearly define targets as well as measure distances and size.  One of the greatest advantages is the ability to monitor, track and direct divers for rescue or recovery.  It is particularly helpful in black water conditions with the ability to direct the rescue divers to the target.  Real-time data from the scanning sonar gives surface support personnel the perspective of what's happening on the bottom.  The sonar can "see" beyond the eyes of the diver and monitor the surrounding conditions.  

 For more information on sonar support see the link provided:

Sonar and Diver Support

Diver's bubble pattern can be seen approaching the victim

Public Safety Diver Monthly

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Please take some time to read and educate yourself to the latest news and information for Public Safety Diving.

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Public Safety Dive Training is Key

Today’s Fire Rescue services are being tasked with more and more duties that require unique types of training, such as Haz-mat, confined space, vehicle extrication, and other specialties.

Just as Fire Rescue services have numerous, growing specialties, water has so many different rescue facets that these teams also need to train for a multiple of operational capabilities. Additionally, as new equipment and techniques develop, teams need to train continuously, both within their departments and through professional trainers. Depending on your specific location, your team may need to be trained and be ready to respond to any one or a multiple of the following water operations, ranging from general search and rescue/recovery to large area search and underwater vehicle operations and salvage.

Despite all of their technical differences and varying training requirements, equipment, and support personnel, each of these water specialties have some factors in common.



A factor that all water operations have in common is the need for strong, organized command. In that regard, water operations are not all that different from any other type of Fire or Rescue response. Command needs to assure that all the operational and technical personnel are properly trained, dressed, and deployed for the operation at hand. If they are not, command has the responsibility to call for someone who is capable of performing a proper rescue.

Bearing this in mind, we will briefly examine a few aspects of rescue/recovery diving and some of its specialties to give a brief overview of the type of operations and training that a water rescue team may need to encompass.


General Rescue/Recovery Operations
Standard sport diving training is simply not enough to prepare a subsurface rescue/recovery team. Public safety diving in reality is a type of technical diving, and therefore demands highly trained, practiced personnel. Unfortunately, dive teams around the world continue to find themselves in situations that are beyond their ability. Luckily, more often than not they survive those situations with only near misses.


One of the major differences between sport diving and public safety diving is that public safety divers usually do not dive in buddy pairs. Instead, a single diver is deployed, linked to shore and a tender by a tether line. That tether line serves a three-fold purpose. First, it is a communication link to shore. Even if a diver has underwater communications, a series of line-pull signals will allow him to communicate any necessary information to his tender. Second, the tether allows a tender to direct the diver over an exact search pattern: if there is ever any slack in the tether, the tender knows that an area may have been missed, and can direct a better search of that area. Third, the tether is a direct link for a back-up diver to reach a primary diver who needs assistance. Without that link, the back-up diver may not find the primary diver in time to help.


There are numerous other permutations of tethered diving, including the use of blackwater diver-to-diver signals, hand-drawn profile maps of the area being searched, and equipment – such as harnesses, pony bottles, line deployment bags, and contingency lines – that are worthy of articles of their own. Suffice to say, these differences are mentioned here to illustrate the vast differences between sport diving and safe, technical search and rescue/recovery diving.


Large-area Search
For diving searches, most of the operational aspects of large area search remain the same as for general rescue/recovery diving. However, divers and shore personnel must be even more thoroughly trained and drilled in order to conduct the operation more smoothly and efficiently. The key to large area search is to ensure that areas are searched thoroughly the first time, so the operation can keep moving.

At least as important as smooth operations is narrowing down the search area based on information about the area one is searching and the item being sought. As an example, let’s look at an actual case. In August of 1997, Lifeguard Systems was called to assist in search for a young man who had drowned in a lake that was about 18 kilometers long and two kilometers wide. Our first step was to research weather conditions, winds, current, the place the young man had left shore, and his possible destinations. We then combined that information to create a much smaller search area. We found the body within that area within two days.


The most noteworthy aspect of large area search is that it cannot be conducted entirely from shore. Hence, diving operations must take place from a boat or floating platform, which in turn involves a triple-anchoring technique that allows the platform to remain in the same place, but be moved by extending some anchor lines and shortening others.
New technologies are also helping large-area search. With satellite technology, GPS, and, even better, DGPS, are giving teams a way to know a more exact location, even on the water’s surface with no landmarks visible. Also, side-scan sonar, which can paint a graphic image of objects on the bottom, can search wide swaths for an object as small as a human body.


Underwater Vehicle Extrication and Salvage
Submerged vehicle operations can be one of the most dangerous situations a public safety diver can encounter. When any vehicle enters the water, it automatically creates a contaminated-water situation as petrol, antifreeze, and oils begin leaking out. Those chemicals will burn skin and eyes on contact, and can cause lipoid pneumonia if even the slightest amount of contaminated water is aspirated. Hence, divers operating on submerged vehicles must be protected by drysuits, full-face masks, and drygloves, and must be thoroughly decontaminated after leaving the water.
Like ice, submerged vehicles create an overhead environment situation. Divers should avoid entering more than an arm’s length inside a vehicle, or they severely risk entanglement and entrapment.


As they explore submerged vehicles to find victims trapped within, divers should always stay low and use extreme caution. Air-filled objects, such as soda bottles or spare tires, become deadly missiles underwater as they seek to reach the surface. I will never forget the nearly-empty ammonia bottle that nearly decapitated me as I searched a van for its occupants.


Dive teams are often called upon to remove or salvage submerged vehicles. Remember, though, that unless that job is needed to assist with a rescue or a body recovery, vehicle salvage is the job of a wrecker crew or commercial divers. If your team must remove a vehicle, be sure that they have trained and practiced using the lift bag system both on land and in water before trying it in an actual situation. If a tow truck is being used to pull the vehicle out, be sure all divers are out of the water and away from the area before removing the vehicle. Remember, heavy salvage is the job of trained, commercial divers.


As we have mentioned, all of these various subsurface specialties, and public safety diving in general, have one big requirement: they demand, absolutely, thorough training and drilling by professionals. Anything less is simply means a tremendous risk for rescuers, and no victim deserves to die because of an inadequate, unrehearsed response.