LAURIE, Mo. -- The Mid-County Rescue Dive Team recently surprised the staff of the Westlake Aquatic Center with a formal show of appreciation for allowing first responders to train at the community pool at no cost to taxpayers.
Dive Team Captain Jim Wilson, Second-in-Command Curtis Bowen, and firefighter and safety officer Kendra Tomkins offered sincere gratitude when they presented a plaque to pool supervisors Carolyn Solomon and Theresa Gramke on Thursday, April 12. The plaque is now displayed proudly at the pool.
As a service to the community, the Westlake Aquatic Center allows emergency responders and active military personnel to use the facility for training and fitness. The community indoor pool in Laurie, Mo., is one of few facilities in the region and the only one at the Lake of the Ozarks that can offer the space, depth and year-round access for emergency divers to train effectively.
“When one of the board members suggested the idea of letting emergency responders and the military use the pool for training, it was an easy, unanimous decision,” said Brent Simpson, a Westlake Aquatic Center board member. “These men and women are here to save, help and defend us. The least we can do is provide them with a free place to train. It was the right thing to do.”
The Mid-County Rescue Dive Team, founded in 1997, is comprised of divers from the Mid County, Sunrise Beach, Gravois Mills and Coffman Bend Fire Protection Districts. The team responds to every city on the west side of the Lake from Versailles to Camdenton, all of the Mid-County Fire Protection District coverage area, Climax Springs, Lebanon, and as far as Tipton. The divers are trained in accordance with Life Guard System, Inc. standards for rapid deployment, search and rescue recovery, how to handle victims, scene and accident management, as well as continued hands-on practical training.
The training the dive team completes at the Westlake Aquatic Center equips them to tender and dive. Two divers go into the water while one, the tender, stays on a fireboat for communications and coordination. The divers are connected to each other and the boat with a search line. Divers tug on the rope in a series of signals such as, ‘stop, turn around, back up.’ There is a hard-wired system between the diver and tender for direction, but the communication between divers is usually visual, by hand or by feeling the rope signals.
However, many times the water is too murky for visual communications. This is one reason why the Westlake Aquatic Center is so valuable to the Rescue Dive Team. It allows them to train in blackout conditions. Without being able to see, divers must work by feel to untangle themselves and complete missions.
The same week the rescue divers presented the plaque of appreciation to the Westlake Aquatic Center, they were called upon to respond to three emergencies. The team was dispatched to a school bus trapped at a low-water crossing at the intersection of Wet Glaze and Carrol Cave Road, located southeast of Montreal. It was a successful operation with no injuries.
On Friday, April 13, the team was dispatched to a car stuck in a creek along Possum Hollow Road in Camdenton. The driver got out, but the ambulance could not reach him due to flood conditions. The dive team successfully moved the man to the ambulance, where he was treated for hypothermia.
On Saturday, April 14, the team was dispatched to car in a low-water crossing, again on Wet Glaze and Carrol Cave Road. The occupants were able to reach safety before the team arrived.
On any given day, the dive team could be called upon to respond to drowning incidents, to help recover evidence for law enforcement, or any number of water rescue emergencies.
“The team mostly does recovery operations,” Captain Wilson said. “Due to driving distances and time of call received, it is hard to get a successful rescue.”
According to Captain Wilson, the dive team would not be possible if it not for funds received from the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. The Rescue Dive Team is one of many service organizations to benefit from the event.
The Westlake Aquatic Center is owned by the Laurie-Sunrise Beach Rotary Club and operated by a Board of Directors. The mini-Olympic, in-door pool offers water aerobics, lifeguard training, swim lessons, rehabilitation, open and lap swims, and water safety education. The pool is open seven days a week for all ages. The Westlake Aquatic Center is located at the back of the Laurie Fairgrounds.
