Cape Girardeau Fire Department conducts dive search training
CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY, Mo. (KBSI)- The diving team for the Cape Girardeau Fire Department is freshening up on their swimming skills.
Fire Department Captain Andy Matthews says their diving team trains every month.
The training prepares them for difficult weather conditions during an emergency and timing during rescues.
Matthews says, “It also allows us we have a portable radar that will map the bottom of the pond, so it allows us to get a pre-plan, kind of map out the local ponds in case we ever get a call to that area.”
Fire Department Diver, Anthony Dowell, says that while training with a body dummy, they are able to recover it within minutes, other times it can take hours, “This is our third time going right now, the first two times we did about fifteen minutes and twenty minutes, and this time we’re over here where it’s just a bunch of snags and trunks and stuff so we’re a little over an hour now.”
Diver Scott Bennett shares the importance of keeping up to date with training, “Our team has to keep our skills up in case we’re called upon, to help rescue and recover anything from a weapon used in a crime to a body or anything like that.”
It was in Capaha pond where a man was found swimming on Friday, September 22, despite the heavy debris of moss covering the water.
Police Information Officer Bobby Newton says that chemicals and debris make swimming in the park ponds dangerous.
“You know people fish out there all the time so there’s all types of lures and hooks and just things that could injure you.” Says, Newton.
All in all, the man was taken to an area hospital and the Cape Girardeau Fire Department says this is why they train so often, because of events like these.
