Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150105
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Doing a feature on the fire, rescue and law enforcement workers who volunteer as divers is a recent example.
As a "landlubber" who has forgotten how to even dog-paddle, getting a handle on what makes these water dogs tick was an education.
Most divers who have the gruesome, grueling task of pulling drowning victims from the water get little mention in news reports.
We generally assume - as we do with fire and rescue teams - that their work gets done because somebody's been trained and paid to do it. We proclaim that service is owed to us because we're taxpayers.
The divers in the New River Valley have a lot in common with the rescue workers we assume are on the way when there's a wreck.
They're volunteer. Their equipment or training might be paid for by tax dollars via city or county dole-outs. But just as often, it might not be. And definitely, their time and effort is provided for free.
With Claytor Lake, the Little and New rivers and other favorite watering holes beckoning to us as a way to shake the heat, we should count ourselves lucky that most New River police and fire and rescue departments have members who happen to be divers.
And as with many volunteer fire and rescue departments, talk of better organizing the dive teams has cropped up.
Curtis Cook, a sergeant with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and its dive team leader, would like to see dive teams become more organized, perhaps forming countywide groups or a valley alliance.
Now, divers for the Sheriff's Office store all their gear - except for air tanks - in their patrol cars. A dive team vehicle or a central place to store equipment would be nice, Cook said.
Larry Saunders, a diver for the Radford Fire Department, said while there are benefits to having a regional team - such as better funding - he sees more drawbacks.
What if divers didn't show up for a call, or equipment was needed in Dublin that was stored in Christiansburg? He thinks the current system is best.
"Right now, everybody's got some equipment in each department and go on and do the job," Saunders said. With three inflated boats - two with depth-finders - Radford is one of the better stocked departments when it comes to equipment for responding to water accidents.
And today's search-pattern diving means that bodies are often recovered within minutes of a witness' report, meaning divers from other localities aren't often needed.
"I'd sort of like to keep it like it is and call for mutual aid when you need it," he said.
Cook used to think like Saunders. Lately, though, the regional team started making a lot more sense to him.
"I just think it would be a good idea because of training and equipment," Cook said. "Right now, we get all the training time that we need but we don't get the equipment that the fire departments and the rescue squads do.
"The only real problem that I see with it is you're going to have a lot of recreational divers that don't have the police training that are going to want to participate."
Cook thinks the solution would be to form two teams within a county or valley dive team. One team would specialize in rescue diving - that period right after a call where saving a life is possible. A second team made up of police divers and people trained in evidence recovery would specialize in recovery efforts - where it's important that evidence that might be needed in a courtroom is not mishandled.
Kathy Loan reports on crime, law-enforcement and courts for The Roanoke Times' New River Valley bureau.
by CNB