On September 14, 2010 at 1616hrs, LAFD BT-3, BT-2, BT-5, EN-49, EN-36, TF-38, TF-85, BC-6 responded to a reported wharf fire at Berth 161. Boat 3, operated by Mate Kelly McKee was first on scene and reported fire showing from a 1000' long wooden wharf. Boat 3 utilized it's bow turret to initiate fire attack until Boat 2 arrived on scene to perform a wharf sweep with it's 4000 GPM under-wharf nozzles. After knocking down the bulk of the fire, Boat 2 backed out to allow Boat 3 to launch it's firefighter dive team, John O'Conner and Curtis Ogle. The dive team continued with fire attack using hand lines from Boat 3 knocking down the remainder of the fire. Access to the under wharf fire from the land division was limited due to heavy construction, rail connections and thick asphalt on top of the giant wooden wharf. A USAR company was requested to assist with access from the land side but it proved to be ineffective. Total extinguishment of the stubborn smoldering creosote laden wharf was done from the water. The incident continued through the night and was finally concluded the following day. (Click on images to enlarge)
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Saturday, January 1, 2011
LAFD Dive Team in Action
So You Want to Improve Your Public Safety Dive Team – Start With The Right Mentality
The most important mission in starting or improving a team is to do what it takes to make sure team members can accomplish the one job they must do every time- Dive Safely
Water operations are unlike any other field in public safety. If a fire department wants to start a hazmat or high angle team do they go to the local hazmat shop or climbing store? If paramedic training is needed do we take a weekend American Red Cross class? Do police officers learn to shoot at the local skeet and trap club? Of course not. Yet, most dive teams begin with training and equipment purchases at the local recreational dive store. Most PSD teams then continue to use sport procedures and equipment. Sport diving and public safety diving (PSD) have little to do with each other, and confusing them has resulted in far too many fatal consequences.
Sport divers dive when and where they want, in good weather conditions, with plenty of pre-planning. Their mission is to have fun. They do not have crying families, chiefs, and the media to contend with. Sport divers dive mid-water, in relatively clean, clear water. PSD divers are woken up at 0200 hrs in the rain, to rapidly pull a family out of a vehicle submerged in black, contaminated water. PSD divers dive on the bottom where entanglements are common place. PSD requires well-trained tenders, safety officers, and backup divers, and detailed documentation in case the scene is later determined to have been a crime scene or if a lawsuit ensues.
PSD divers often move from an entry-level sport diving course to a sport rescue diver course that is designed to teach sport divers how to save each other in high visibility mid-water. Sport rescue diver training does not address the needs of bottom dwelling, tethered, solo blackwater divers and certainly has nothing to do with conducting a PSD search operation.
For example, sport diving out-of-air procedures are irrelevant for solo-tethered-tender-directed divers. The latter should have quick-release pony bottles so if they need air they just switch to their pony and surface, unless of course they are entangled on the bottom, which is a situation requiring a specific set of well-trained procedures never addressed in sport rescue.
Sport divers use octopuses, which were created by Walt Hendrick, Sr. and Dave Woodward for shallow, high-visibility, mid-water diving. An octopus is merely a second mouthpiece coming off a single air source that can be passed off to an out-of-air buddy. What good is an octopus when a solo diver runs out of air? Having a second mouthpiece to an empty cylinder is pointless. And what happens when a backup diver passes an octopus off to an out-of-air primary diver entangled on the bottom? Now the backup cannot move around to help and is stuck to the primary diver. Octopuses have no place in public safety diving, yet sadly they are prevalent in PSD.
How many dive teams even have a contingency pony and full-size bottle on the scene set-up and ready to be brought to a low-on-air diver entrapped on the bottom? Seems so logical, yet the answer is probably less than five percent of teams. Why is this true? Because the majority of PSD training is based on sport diving procedures, equipment, and mentality.
Entanglement is the most common problem of bottom-dwelling divers. Today, while giving ice training sessions to the Anchorage F.D dive team, the first diver experienced a tangle of fishing line well wrapped around his left heel up to his hip, which is a common occurrence where people fish. Do we train for this? Sport divers are sold expensive knives that they duly wear on their legs, yet, less than one percent ever receive hands-on training in entanglement management. PSD divers, who need this training the most, are not much better. We find less than ten percent have hands-on entanglement management training.
The sport diver mentality says one knife worn on the leg with no training is sufficient, because you never really are going to need it anyway. PSD divers need the attitude that a cutting tool in trained hands can save your own or another diver’s life. Could a cutting tool be dropped in cold or blackwater? The obvious answer of yes should dictate that PSD divers wear at least two to three cutting tools. Sadly, the sport diver mentality prevails, and most PSD divers carry a single knife.
It gets worse. Divers who have worked on real or training entanglements learn that knives are inefficient for cutting such entanglements as fishing line, and can injure equipment or a diver when used in zero visibility.
READ MORE...
Water operations are unlike any other field in public safety. If a fire department wants to start a hazmat or high angle team do they go to the local hazmat shop or climbing store? If paramedic training is needed do we take a weekend American Red Cross class? Do police officers learn to shoot at the local skeet and trap club? Of course not. Yet, most dive teams begin with training and equipment purchases at the local recreational dive store. Most PSD teams then continue to use sport procedures and equipment. Sport diving and public safety diving (PSD) have little to do with each other, and confusing them has resulted in far too many fatal consequences.
Sport divers dive when and where they want, in good weather conditions, with plenty of pre-planning. Their mission is to have fun. They do not have crying families, chiefs, and the media to contend with. Sport divers dive mid-water, in relatively clean, clear water. PSD divers are woken up at 0200 hrs in the rain, to rapidly pull a family out of a vehicle submerged in black, contaminated water. PSD divers dive on the bottom where entanglements are common place. PSD requires well-trained tenders, safety officers, and backup divers, and detailed documentation in case the scene is later determined to have been a crime scene or if a lawsuit ensues.
PSD divers often move from an entry-level sport diving course to a sport rescue diver course that is designed to teach sport divers how to save each other in high visibility mid-water. Sport rescue diver training does not address the needs of bottom dwelling, tethered, solo blackwater divers and certainly has nothing to do with conducting a PSD search operation.
For example, sport diving out-of-air procedures are irrelevant for solo-tethered-tender-directed divers. The latter should have quick-release pony bottles so if they need air they just switch to their pony and surface, unless of course they are entangled on the bottom, which is a situation requiring a specific set of well-trained procedures never addressed in sport rescue.
Sport divers use octopuses, which were created by Walt Hendrick, Sr. and Dave Woodward for shallow, high-visibility, mid-water diving. An octopus is merely a second mouthpiece coming off a single air source that can be passed off to an out-of-air buddy. What good is an octopus when a solo diver runs out of air? Having a second mouthpiece to an empty cylinder is pointless. And what happens when a backup diver passes an octopus off to an out-of-air primary diver entangled on the bottom? Now the backup cannot move around to help and is stuck to the primary diver. Octopuses have no place in public safety diving, yet sadly they are prevalent in PSD.
How many dive teams even have a contingency pony and full-size bottle on the scene set-up and ready to be brought to a low-on-air diver entrapped on the bottom? Seems so logical, yet the answer is probably less than five percent of teams. Why is this true? Because the majority of PSD training is based on sport diving procedures, equipment, and mentality.
Entanglement is the most common problem of bottom-dwelling divers. Today, while giving ice training sessions to the Anchorage F.D dive team, the first diver experienced a tangle of fishing line well wrapped around his left heel up to his hip, which is a common occurrence where people fish. Do we train for this? Sport divers are sold expensive knives that they duly wear on their legs, yet, less than one percent ever receive hands-on training in entanglement management. PSD divers, who need this training the most, are not much better. We find less than ten percent have hands-on entanglement management training.
The sport diver mentality says one knife worn on the leg with no training is sufficient, because you never really are going to need it anyway. PSD divers need the attitude that a cutting tool in trained hands can save your own or another diver’s life. Could a cutting tool be dropped in cold or blackwater? The obvious answer of yes should dictate that PSD divers wear at least two to three cutting tools. Sadly, the sport diver mentality prevails, and most PSD divers carry a single knife.
It gets worse. Divers who have worked on real or training entanglements learn that knives are inefficient for cutting such entanglements as fishing line, and can injure equipment or a diver when used in zero visibility.
READ MORE...
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