Local fire department rescue divers to be trained at OCCC

Brady Curry
News Writing Student

A diving team from the Oklahoma City Fire Department will be training in the Aquatic Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 8 through 10, said James Hensley, Aquatics and Safety Training specialist.

Hensley said divers will have personal trainers to assist them in learning rescue diving.

The trainees will consist of 10 to 20 members of diving teams from all over the city.

One method of rescue diving involves sweeping an expanse of water by searching it like a grid, Hensley said.

A trainer holds a tether, while the trainee has the tether tied to his waist. The person in the water is pulled by the tether from one direction to another scanning for victims until the body of water is searched completely.

During the whole process, divers use hand signals that let the person holding the tether know when to lead the diver in which direction, Hensley said. Other signals let the person holding the tether know how far to let the diver swim out.

The other method of rescue diving also includes a person holding a tether while a diver on the other end conducts a search.

In this method, Hensley said, instead of one person scanning the area for people, a group walks out into the water.

This method is mainly used on beach shorelines, he said.

When divers are using the method for rescue diving, Hensley said, they are typically searching for people who may be dead or alive.

“They are hoping for survivors, but unfortunately, that is not always the case,” he said.

Hensley said these methods of rescue diving will be practiced in the deep water of the diving well within the OCCC facility.

“I have actually seen them practice being hooked up to a tether,” he said. “They use aluminum foil to cover up their masks as if they were really in a low visibility lake or river.”

When fire department divers are searching, they often must work in murky water that prevents them from seeing what they are looking for, so they have to rely on feeling their way, Hensley said.

The masks they use for training are the same ones that are used in real rescue diving situations.

The event was put together by Chris Field, a member of the Oklahoma City Fire Department.