WATCH ABOVE: As Carolyn Kury de Castillo reports, it’s extreme training that isn’t for the faint of heart.
CALGARY- People walking or biking around heritage park Sunday, got a bit of a show from the Calgary Fire Department.
Dive team members were sawing into the ice and plunging into the frigid water.
It’s extreme training that isn’t for the faint of heart.
It looks as inviting as diving in Cancun, but a trip to the surface says winter in Calgary.
The Calgary Fire Department’s aquatics rescue team is training under some harsh conditions.
Blocked from the surface by nearly half a meter of ice, relying on equipment to breath and there’s only one way out.
“Knowing that you have this big sheet of ice over top of your head, generally we don’t find that claustrophobic phobic people like to do this,” Acting Lieutenant Evan Poisson, a CFD Dive Instructor said.
They start with shoveling a circle on Glenmore Reservoir, a guide that limits how far the divers can safely go. the arrows point back to that precious hole in ice.
Once the hole is cut, it’s time to don the dry suits and thermal layers.
A tent is set up to shield chilled divers from the wind once they get out.
“The weather conditions and the environment add to potential equipment issues and failure before you’re even in the water.As well it adds to cooling the diver down and making them cold before they get in their gear,” Poisson said.
The world under the ice can be as dark as night if there’s heavy snow cover. or it can be clearer than summer with the lack of vegetation and undisturbed bottom.
“We’ve gone out and been able to have divers on the bottom of the ice and people on top of the ice and look through see each other and communicate with each other. Maybe take a tennis ball and a hockey stick underneath and play a little under water ice hockey upside down,” Poisson said.
While the ice here is 45 centimeters thick, the fire department discourages anyone from being on reservoir because of it’s changing levels.
“The water levels do fluctuate on the reservoir so what does create air pockets between the ice in the water and if the ice is not supported it can be weak can those areas,” Acting Battalion Chief Bruce Gelhorn said.
It’s a job that would give many of us the chills, but for the divers who search under a vault of ice, it’s all about training that could help save a life.
It’s estimated that in water around zero degrees, a person will become exhausted or lose consciousness within only 15 minutes, but can survive up to 90 minutes.
Comments