If you dive in contaminated water, and most public safety divers will, then you must be aware of the procedures to be followed for decontamination, i.e., the cleaning of the diver and his gear following a dive.
If we’re not constantly learning we remain stagnant and remaining stagnant means we don’t evolve. In the ever changing Public Safety field we should always be learning and staying up to date with current proccedures. We’re sharing stories of Public Safety teams out on the job and what they’re learning from the situations they’re called into.
Our responsibility is to know our job, equipment, and capabilities and let the others take care of theirs.
Recruiting for a dive team can be difficult, and in many cases your candidate pickings may be slim, but do not just accept members to fill seats.
If you are forming, or plan to form a new dive team, I wish you luck. Even when taking on this task, ask for help and learn how others have been successful.
A core standard for training public safety divers is essential. Emergency Response Diving International (ERDI) has worked to develop a set of training protocols where equipment, safety planning, and operational activities are pre-designed to follow NFPA and OSHA guidelines.
Many dive team members join as basic open water divers with minimal experience. To help this type of individual be a better public safety diver, there are many actions he or she can take.
Diver safety is paramount when considering temperature and how it may affect a diver’s health.
Air delivery is one topic that must be discussed and planned on any dive team.
Over the past year or so, I have been on a mission to figure out what the health risks are to public safety divers, what is causing injuries, why they are dying, and what ERDI can do to help prevent these accidents from happening.