On Sunday, the McKean County Dive and Rescue Team assisted the Corydon Township Fire Department with a simulated, emergency training operation at the Porcupine Campground at Willow Bay in Corydon Township.
State police and the Pennsylvania Game Commission were on site, too.
The operation being simulated was a possible homicide and body recovery from the bay. The separate agencies worked in coordination to assist with the simulated water recovery.
The Era was able to get the rundown on how the training operations work from Chief Jeff Prosser of McKean County.
“We are on automatic dispatch. That means that we are the special operations group dispatched to assist any agency in McKean County as well as Warren County for any water related operations aside from swimming pools,” he said.
Chief Matt Cobb of the Corydon Township Fire Department explained that just like with a real situation, during the simulation the entire recreational area would be shut down. “We would secure the scene, making sure to cut off any vehicle and pedestrian traffic. We would question any witnesses, and then when the dive team gets here we would help them with anything they need,” he explained.
When asked about the benefits of doing the training operations, Prosser said that the training comes in handy for real situations. “So when the time comes, we can work more effectively together as inner agencies cooperating — they know what to expect from us, we know what to expect from them,” he said.
Prosser went to explain the troubles in the past years with outside agencies and dive teams that are called in to assist that try to take over the situation from the agency in the jurisdiction. Prosser addressed that concern and said, “We just want to make it clear that that isn’t an issue with us. We run our own operation within their scene. We always want to come in and just do our job, which is to assist them as they tell us what to do.”
The McKean County Dive and Rescue Team and the Corydon Township Fire Department also shared some advice for people looking to enjoy the summer out on any body of water.
First, they stressed the need for a personal floatation device, which will not only help keep a person from drowning, but it will keep that person afloat — making the job a lot easier for a diver or firefighter.
The second thing they advise is to be aware of the “50-50” rule, which means that a person has a 50-percent chance of swimming 50 feet in 50-degree water before they submerge and hypothermia sets in. Even if the weather warms up the next day, the water can take a long time to warm itself. People can still get hypothermia on a warm day.
