Mat-Su Dive Rescue Team makes a difference

When people find themselves unexpectedly floundering in Alaska's chilly waters, they may take comfort from the knowledge that the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Dive Rescue Team is on the job.

The team conducted two harrowing operations within 10 days of each other last month. On Sept. 20, divers Ron Durheim and Gordon Butt chose not to wait for their boat to arrive, but plunged into the Matanuska River to search for a hunter who was swept downstream when his and his hunting partner's canoe capsized near Chickaloon. Hopes of rescue vanished when Alaska State Troopers spotted the body from the air and enlisted the aid of one of the divers to recover it.

Less than a week and a half later, another potentially fatal accident had a happier outcome when divers rescued a young mother from the rushing waters of Little Willow Creek. Her husband lost control of their pickup truck in the rain on the Parks Highway last Monday night, causing the truck to skid off the road and into the rain-swollen river, ending up on its side with only a few feet of sheet metal above the current.

Diver Ed McCain took in the scene and made a quick decision to suit up and hit the rising current in advance of full team support because he saw that the injured woman was alive and struggling to stay above the rising water. He stayed with her on the truck until the dive van arrived pulling the team's boat.

According to McCain, who serves as chief of the Dive Rescue Team, divers on the team make such on-the-spot decisions whenever they respond to accidents.

"As first responders, we have to weigh the risks we take against the benefits of potentially saving a life," he said in an interview on Friday. "If we have reason to hope that a victim can be saved, we take greater risk ourselves."

In order to prepare for rescue operations, individual team members receive progressively more advanced training in diving, swift-water rescue and rope rescue, depending on the role the volunteer wishes to play on the team. The greatest training effort, according to McCain, is swift-water rescue work in which members are trained to deal with accidents such as Monday's operation on Little Willow Creek.

In addition, members who desire it are encouraged to become certified as Emergency Medical Technicians. Rope training enables the team to effect rescues when cars have plunged off of roads and down steep embankments, as well as rescues in water.

Dive Rescue Team members come from a variety of backgrounds and occupations. According to McCain and Deputy Dive Rescue Team Chief Ron Durheim, the team includes a chiropractor, a painting contractor, at least one teacher, an accountant and a retired state trooper, among others. McCain himself is a professional surveyor as well as an active fireman, and Durheim works in construction, as well as being a certified diving instructor and an active medic.

There are currently 14 members of the team, including three women, with an additional nine members from the Talkeetna and Sutton fire and rescue stations who participate in swift-water rescue operations that occur in those communities. Individual members are at various stages of dive rescue and swift-water rescue training.

"We always need volunteers," McCain said. "And right now we are especially in need of volunteers in the Willow area since many of our members are located right around Wasilla."

Durheim has been a diver for 34 years and has served on the Dive Rescue Team for 12 of those years. He is a certified diving instructor, and provides the basic diver training for new team members himself. McCain has been a diver since 1985 and has been on the team for all 17 years. He has also been a volunteer fireman for 20 years.

Team members can serve in a variety of functions, but members are not expected to participate in rescue operations with which they are not comfortable.

"Everyone does not have to dive or go into the water," explained McCain. "Team members in support roles are critical to the safety of both divers and victims. At Willow Creek, support people were the ones that passed me an oxygen tank, blankets, and life jackets while I was on that truck."

He added that members are permitted to participate in advanced rescue operations only when they have the necessary years of experience and training.

"New team members are sometimes disappointed when they realize that they can't just join the team and jump right in to these operations immediately," he said.

McCain said that, with the exception of the Talkeetna and Sutton stations, the Dive Rescue Team members are first responders for water or rope related calls for the entire Mat-Su Borough, from Lake Louise almost to Cantwell. Each member of the team is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and they carry pagers that allow the dispatch center in Palmer to contact them at any time.

They receive pay for hours that they work, although that has not always been the case.

"I don't remember when we started getting paid," laughed Durheim. "None of us are in it for the money."

Responders are dispatched depending upon the nature and location of the accident, and many rescue operations succeed due to the combined efforts of different stations and rescue teams in addition to state troopers.

For example, the Willow Creek rescue operation included the Dive Rescue Team, the Willow ambulance and fire and rescue responders, and the Houston ambulance responders. The Matanuska River accident required the services of the Dive Rescue Team, Sutton ambulance responders, and Sutton, Palmer and Butte fire and rescue responders. State troopers were also involved in both operations.

Responder efforts are aided when victims or witnesses to an accident are able to provide specific information when making a 911 call.

"We can get there faster if we have good location information," said McCain. "Milepost numbers are ideal, even if a witness might have to drive to the nearest milepost to get the number."

Responders also need to know the number of victims, if possible, whether they are still in the vehicle, and the nature and extent of injuries if that can be determined. The dispatch center relays information provided by witnesses to the responders, and updates the information as additional calls come in.

McCain and Durheim explained that the Dive Rescue Team faces different challenges with each Alaskan season. Hunting season brings on accidents such as the canoeing incident on the Matanuska River and other situations in which hunters can get into trouble and need rescuing. The team responds to float plane accidents and other boating accidents as well.

With early winter, a new hazard emerges as animals, children, and occasionally adults venture onto ice that is too thin to bear their weight. While the Dive Rescue Team is concerned about animal rescue, they respond on a case-by-case basis to such calls primarily to prevent children and adults from endangering themselves in attempts to rescue the pet.

As winter progresses, the calls more frequently involve people on snowmachines and in cars or trucks that have broken through the ice. McCain pointed out that ice is not uniformly thick over entire lakes even in the coldest part of winter.

The team sometimes responds on an emergency basis to such calls only to find the vehicle is empty and all the people involved are safe.

"If you see a vehicle through the ice," asks McCain, "call dispatch. But if it is your vehicle and you know that everyone is out of it and OK, tell us that." This information enables the team to prioritize the responses so they can assure coverage of life-threatening emergencies.

As warming temperatures cause the ice over rivers and lakes, even though still quite thick, to deteriorate, the team sees a return of ice-related emergencies involving individual people and both wild and domestic animals.

According to McCain and Durheim, recent summers have seen an increase in river calls, specially since the Knik River has become a recreational mecca for the borough. When dipnetting is permitted on Fish Creek, the team is called to rescue individuals who have become mired in the sucking mud.

And throughout the year, the team is called in when drivers of cars and trucks lose control of their vehicles and leave the roads in the borough to plough down embankments or plunge into the water.

"Salvage is not a responsibility of the dive rescue team," said McCain. "We retrieve the vehicles immediately following accidents only if there is risk of pollution or to assist troopers if the vehicle is required as evidence."

When asked why he continues to serve on the dive rescue team, McCain laughed "Maybe I'm an adrenaline freak, I don't know. I think this gives me an opportunity to use my skills to help people in trouble, enjoy the camaraderie of the team, and have some adventure in my life."

Asked the same question, Durheim answered "My initial reasons for joining were to gain advanced diving skills and to do something for my community. Now, my reasons are to help develop the skill levels of the current team to their full potential and bring new people up to advanced levels they can eventually take over team leadership."

He paused for a moment and then added "When I'm retired from the team, I want to be able to look back and be proud of a team that I was once part of."