Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS, Ohio — After nearly three years of preparation, the Columbus Division of Fire's Dive and Rescue Team is ready to take the plunge.

The team went into service at 8 a.m. yesterday, with members available around the clock to respond to reports of drownings, submerged cars and other water-related emergencies across the city.

Water rescues in Columbus used to fall to firefighters in boats, who prodded the bottom with long poles and dragged with hooks. In shallow water, they bobbed around in buoyant but awkward "Gumby" suits that kept them safely on the surface but often out of reach of victims.

The Dive and Rescue Team, called DART, is trained to pull victims from the water in that crucial window before drowning occurs. Depending on conditions and water temperature, a person can survive underwater for up to an hour.

There are other dive teams in central Ohio and about 200 across the state. The Fire Division began preparing its own team in earnest in early 2006, and Battalion Chief Doug Smith said 53 divers and 12 land-only shoretenders now are prepared to respond.

The members have received a combined 4,000 hours of training. Divers trained first in pools before graduating to zero-visibility "black water" conditions in local ponds and quarries, where water is contaminated and riddled with dangerous snags and debris.

"It just takes time for them to get comfortable moving around under the surface," Smith said. "A lot of these firefighters had never scuba-dived before. The last thing we wanted to do was put them in service too early."

The Police Division has had a search-and-recovery dive team for years, but those divers focus on the recovery of bodies and evidence linked to criminal investigations.

The new team's equipment was purchased with $75,000 set aside by the City Council several years ago. Now that the team is operational, annual costs should be limited to training as well as equipment maintenance and replacement, Smith said.

The Fire Division responds to about 50 water emergencies a year, but the team won't dive on all of them. A supervisor will decide whether to put divers in the water. Flowing water in particular can be deadly, and the divers won't enter water moving faster than 1 knot.

"Five knots will mess a diver up," said Steve Treinish, the team's lead instructor.

Copyright 2008 The Columbus Dispatch