Minutes of the July BAMSAR meeting at South Country Ambulance. Thanks to Damon and Greg for their hospitality.
Present: Brookhaven, South Country, Mastic Beach, Mastic, Center Moriches, Eastport/Southampton Town Chiefs, Westhampton
VAC, and Westhampton Beach.
Old business: Dive Rescue course on Columbus Day weekend. WHBFD can supply 3, Mastic Beach, 3; possibly 2 from
Brookhaven, all others were asked to find out if anyone is interested.
Training: Surface rescue class at South Country Ambulance on Sunday, 24 June, was cancelled, but they'll be trying
again this month.
New business: Paul and Tim were asked to collaborate on an outline letter to all departments, indicating what we,
the BAMSAR, could do for the heads of these agencies, during a water rescue call. Included in this would be suggestions
as to how these agencies could make our job easier, by preparing the scene ahead of our arrival. This would include:
establishment of Incident Command, witness interview, scene security, notifying at least two dive teams (OSHA 2-in/2-out
manpower rule), establishment of a last-known position of the victim. This letter would be sent to all five east-end
towns (including their respective Police Departments), the Coast Guard (possibly up to District level, but only
with Todd's approval), and the Town of Brookhaven Chiefs. This would go a long way to overcome a lot of misunderstanding
that has been brewing lately. Paul has a draft of a proposal, and Tim has a few suggestions that he requests be
added to it. Draft is due back next meeting. Scooter passed out a synopsis of our training for inclusion in this
info packet.
Speaking of drafts of letters and suggested guidelines……. No action has been forth-coming on the committee, set
up by FRES, chaired by the County water rescue coordinator. So far, no meetings have been held (the committee was
established at the end of May), and nobody has received any correspondence from it. What gives?
A debriefing was held for the dive rescue at Wildwood Lake. Some lessons learned: 1)
Do your search as you learned to do it- ignore all distractions. The SCPD helo was a big problem, in that every
time the pilot observed an object in the water, divers were pulled away from the search to investigate. This should
be assigned to surface units to investigate. (Credit is due the helo for eventually finding the victim, in the
originally reported L.K.P.) 2) Communications can be improved. The new PD helo reportedly now has fire band capabilities.
3) Guidelines should be worked out with PD as to what to do with a dead victim when, as in this case, a civil disturbance
occurs on the shore between the victim's family and friends, and witnesses, over the circumstances surrounding
the drowning. (Reportedly, victim's family made certain accusations to/ about the friends and witnesses, leading
to a confrontation, which continued at the hospital where the victim was pronounced dead.) 4) Tenders should not
tend while standing in the water. They should always tend from shore or a boat.
Riverhead Town PD will be invited to our next meeting. We'd like to start preliminary discussions with them, Suffolk
PD, and Southampton PD, as to us providing a rescue and assistance/ rapid intervention team for their dives. We'd
stay out of the water, but near the scene, in case a PD diver needed rescue.
Rebate checks have been mailed out to the host Departments that held the dive courses. The county purchase order
will be billed by month's end.
A suggestion was made for each unit to look into purchasing rated nylon straps for pulling cars out of the water.
The last car that was pulled out was done using a steel cable from a tow truck, and proved very difficult. Positive
discussion followed.
Next meeting will be held by Patchogue FD on 9 August, at 1930. Anyone needing directions, please contact the Secretary,
at 878-9217 (H), 344-2350 (W),
516 407-1332 (Pager), or E-mail: o_foghladha@yahoo.com .
Any additions, comments, or corrections to these minutes, contact the Secretary.