Dive Rescue Team
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The team currently operates out of a converted 1997 Ford Ambulance as a dive truck. We have two Zodiac F470 inflatable boats that are equipped with 35hp jet drive motors and one 14 Jon boat with a 10hp motor. The boats are carried on a aluminum trailer and towed by the dive truck. The team has three complete SCUBA units in assigned seat positions (like fire apparatus) set up with AGA full face masks and hardwire communications for ease in deployment on arrival to the scene. The team also has extra dry suits, surface supplied air, redundant air supply for SCUBA and surface supplied air along with other various surface and dive rescue equipment.
The team has their own in-house trainer which allows for year round training in classroom, pool open
The team's equipment has been funded largely by Federal, State and local grant money which minimized the amount of tax monies needed for funding. |
Canton Township Fire Department has the only organized water rescue dive team in Stark County that
handles both surface and subsurface rescues and recoveries. The team is available anytime, day or
night, to assist any department that would need our assistance.
water, moving water and ice rescue. The team members are trained in Public Safety Diving, Dive Rescue
I, Public Safety Rescue Swimmer, surface ice rescue, diving in polluted or hazardous environments,
Med Dive, surface supplied air, and ice diving operations. The team uses the following categories to
rate their divers: Master Diver, 1st Class Diver, 2nd Class Diver and public Safety Diver depending
on their experience and training levels. The team has multiple divers with 20-25 years of experience
with the least being 2 years experience. Through the natural progression of aging, the team's level
of experience fluctuates due to staffing and experienced moving on to other departments or through
retirement.
The team has been deployed several times to other counties in the State of Ohio through the Fire
Chief's Statewide Emergency response Plan for surface water rescue. The team also works with the
Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office in Florida and with the United States Navy Seal Cadet Corps on
an orientation course to Naval Special Warfare.