Palatine Conducts Ice Dive Training at Twin Lakes

If you happen to pass by Twin Lakes in the next couple of days, you might think there is an emergency situation going on. 

That’s because the Palatine Fire Department, along with nine other area departments, will be conducting ice dive training to polish their skills in the case someone falls through the ice or ends up in frigid waters.

Firefighters/paramedics, who also are trained divers, are equipped with a dry suit, scuba gear, a tank with buoyancy compensator and full face AGA mask that allows communication from diver to diver as well as team members waiting on dry land to provide support.

“There is always a rope that has to be anchored to something on the shore, and that line is anchored to the diver, too,” said Captain Randy Dowell, dive team leader for the Palatine fire department.

Dowell said when a victim is located, the diver is responsible for bringing him or her to shore, where one of two ambulances are waiting.

One ambulance is for the victim to be transported to the hospital, and the other is there in case dive team members get into trouble.

“The entire situation can be traumatic and very difficult; visibility is many times zero, which means everything has to be done by feel,” Dowell said.

Dowell said the team has to make a determination where to begin searching for victims, based on eyewitness accounts in addition to evidence on the water such as broken ice or other openings.

“Once we determine our focus, we do arc patters looking for the victim so we know where we’ve been and where we still have to look,” Dowell said.

There also is a rotation of divers ready to take the place of those who are in frigid waters for more than 20 to 30 minutes.

“They start using up the air in their tanks, depending on how hard they are working – it also depends on how deep the body of water is we are searching in – we continually monitor as they are diving,” Dowell said.

Training began on Valentine's Day and is expected to be completed by Thursday Feb. 16.

While one diver is in the water simulating a victim, the team is conducting emergency procedure drills. The divers practice a variety of scenarios.

The Palatine Fire Department is a member of MABAS Division Once, which includes the Palatine Rural Fire Protection District along with fire departments from Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Elk Grove, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, Streamwood and Wheeling.

When the MABAS alarm is sounded, all of the departments come to assist.  

“When we conduct our training, we invite our surrounding MABAS members to join us so that during an emergency we all respond to, we know how to work with each other,” Dowell said.

Dowell said there have been no drownings in Palatine as far back as he can remember, but the last emergency in icy water occurred in January when a . The woman was pulled from the water and not seriously injured.

Dowell said that ice on water this winter is especially dangerous because of the constant change in temperature.

“Today it is three inches thick, but there is still open water further out; there are thinner spots that people may not be aware of-the ice is very unstable,” Dowell said.

There are ice fisherman that go out at Twin Lakes in addition to other small bodies of water in the village, though flags in many locations are posted to warn people about dangerous spots.

“People still ignore those warnings, which is why we train for this,” Dowell said.

The fire department dive team will be on hand for the upcoming Polar Plunge on March 4 at Twin Lakes, just in case anyone gets into trouble.

“Being prepared is our best chance to reach a positive outcome,” Dowell said.