BAMSAR MINUTES
Minutes of the September, 2008, BAMSAR meeting, held at South Country Ambulance. Thanks to the South Country members for their hospitality.
Present: South Country, Hagerman, Bellport, Mastic Beach, Mastic, Center Moriches and our guest, George Staudt (Patchogue Ambulance).
Excused: Brookhaven, Tim Dahlen, Ed Michels (EHTMP) and Jim Bowra (SCSD).
Old Business:
Dive Rescue Course: This will be held on the 16th through the 19th of October. Hagerman has offered to host. The first session will be at Hagerman fire house, on the 16th, starting at 6 pm. Friday’s session will also begin at 6 pm. Saturday and Sunday sessions will begin at 8 am. Cost is $150 per man. So far, we have 6 personnel signed up to participate.
Further discussion was held on Moriches Inlet. A letter was read from the East Moriches Fire Department, that laid out their response plan for the Inlet. This organization felt that the public would be better served by a more coordinated response, rather than by the restrictions imposed in East Moriches’ letter.
The race that was held on Great South Bay was discussed. All the planning over the last 4-6 months paid off. The emergency responders did a great job, and all agreed that they would do nothing different, if another incident occurred. George Staudt, Patchogue Ambulance, told us that he had the boat pilot in the emergency room of BMH, within 15 minutes of the accident. This accounted for the total time to extract the boat crew, bring them to shore, transfer them to the ambulance, and to get them to a doctor’s care at BMH. A number of causes that contributed to the deadly accident have been identified, and were discussed at the meeting. They will not be published here, but will be in the final official report, when investigators conclude their work.
New Business:
George Staudt, of Patchogue Ambulance was introduced to the group. He’s interested in having Patchogue Ambulance get a better idea of water rescue operations and having them become more involved in the process. Welcome aboard, George! We assured him that we will do anything we can to assist him.
Bill Biondi is looking into getting us the Mastic Pool for our Dive 1 course, and for the first Sunday of each month, from December, to April, for water rescue teams to practice in. The pool would be available from 0830 to 1230. As was done last year, divers/water rescue personnel would need to show their certification card to the lifeguard, in order to get in to these sessions.
Hagerman is looking into getting the STAR Rescue organization to bring their racing boat cockpit simulator here to do a training session, sometime in the March-April ’09 timeframe. STAR Rescue are the people who provide the safety coverage for powerboat races, worldwide, and have a simulator for training divers and surface rescue personnel in rescue procedures to extract the cockpit crew of a racing boat after an accident. From the accounts of those in this organization who have been through the training, it is worth the time, and they came away with some valuable information.
Recalls: Two recalls of diving regulators have been issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, due to drowning incidents. Recall #08-393 and #08-402 have been included in this set of minutes. Please pass this information to all members of your teams, and have each team check its equipment immediately. Return any affected equipment to your dive equipment supplier for repair.
Training:
Brookhaven- Dutch Springs, Pa., training dive on 27 September. All welcome. Please contact Mike Banovich at email: Mike.Banovich@usaind.com, if you plan to go.
If anyone has, or knows of, any training going on that may be of interest to the membership, please feel free to send notice of the training to either the BAMSAR webmaster at webmaster@bamsar.org, or to the Secretary, at o_foghladha@yahoo.com.
Next meeting: Thursday, 13 November, 2008, at 1930, at Mastic. Anyone needing directions, or organizations that cannot hold their scheduled meeting, please contact the Secretary.
Any corrections, additions, or questions; please contact the Secretary.
Respectfully,
John Foley