'BLIND' RESCUERS PRACTICE SEARCHES IN POOL

JACKSON, Mo. -- If it hadn't been the clear, blue water of Jackson pool that his feet were dangling in, Walt Biri could have been mistaken for a fisherman. But it was a firefighter, not a fish, tugging on his line.

Jackson Fire Rescue officers were practicing search-and-recovery training exercises in the swimming pool Friday.

Wearing scuba gear and masks covered with black plastic to help them simulate blind diving conditions, the officers practiced searching for and recovering a "body."

By means of a rope, knotted every five feet, the divers communicated with a shore-tender to search the bottom of the pool until they came upon the body of volunteer Evelyn Owen.

The dive team is part of a special-operations unit that responds to hazardous-materials emergencies, takes part in rescues and works with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force.

Divers also perform other duties like removing debris from city water supplies.

Dive team leader Eric Limbaugh conducted the training, which included search and rescue, retrieval, lifting and recovery techniques.

A former diver with Sea World in Florida, Limbaugh has been involved with water search and rescue for 10 years.

"People call the fire department for everything from a cat up a tree to a person drowning in a lake or river. We have to be prepared," said Don King, Jackson emergency medical service officer.

Called to duty

As if to prove King's point, in the middle of training, the men scrambled out of the pool to respond to a kitchen fire in a nearby mobile home park.

The fire wasn't serious and Limbaugh suffered through quite a bit of ribbing for arriving in his SeaQuest wetsuit.

"Man, I'm never going to live this down," he said.

King, in dripping, purple-patterned swim trunks and sun hat, fared little better.

Once back in the pool, the divers swam back and forth, covering individual sections while working their way across the pool. Owen, fully clothed and also wearing scuba gear, lay still on the bottom of the pool until the divers brought her to the surface.

After each diver found her and gave the shore-tender the signal, a second diver, also swimming blind, followed the rope down to the first and aided in bringing Owen to the surface.

On the diver's side, one tug on the line indicates he's OK; three tugs tell the shore-tender he's found something; and persistent tugging is a request for help.

On the shore-tender's side, one tug says OK, two tugs say change direction; and three tugs mean come to the surface.

Limbaugh said the blind diving is an important lesson.

Recently the dive team was asked to search for a rifle on the bottom of a lake near Perryville, Mo., and the water was so murky it was impossible to see.