TORRINGTON – Last week, members of the Torrington Dive and Rescue team received a donation on behalf of the department from the Knights of Columbus which was matched by St. Rose Catholic Church in Torrington. 

Goshen County is surrounded by water. The city of Torrington has the North Platte River running through town and much of the community is encompassed by canals, drain ditches and reservoirs. Goshen County, Torrington Volunteer Fire Department, to be precise is also the home of a handful of unique volunteers who are trained, equipped and prepared to rescue anyone in danger or recover the remains of deceased individuals in the many bodies of water throughout the county and even beyond. 

“It’s unique in the aspect that we have the river,” Michael Schuler said. “We have swift water rescue and we have a dive team.”

Schuler, who was accompanied by fellow dive team member Brandon Gasseling, explained the dive team is under the city fire department, making their coverage area within the city limits.

“The unique thing about the dive team is we actually, in our district that we cover, we have very few divable bodies of water. So, a lot of the places that we do end up diving say, Hawk Springs, Grey Rocks, Glendo, Guernsey, Packers, Springer those all lie outside of our district,” Schuler said. “But we assist everybody.”

“I think it’s super neat that we have the ability to do that because the dive team is more for everybody around us, but we are trained in it and have the capability to go assist other departments that don’t have the capability to staff a dive team, train a dive team, resources; the resources of the dive equipment itself because it’s not cheap stuff to acquire and just keep up on,” Schuler explained.

Gasseling agreed. 

Like many emergency services, most of the community doesn’t think about the service until they need it. 

“We like to call it dive rescue and swift water rescue, the low frequency/high-risk type stuff,” Schuler said. “We might get one call every five years or we might run into a two-year span like we have had in the last two years.”

“We have had two this year,” Gasseling said. “[They were] recoveries, unfortunately. That’s the biggest downside, you’re not rescuing very often. It’s a recovery [of the body] at this rate,” Gasseling said. 

The dive team members receive training through the team department and other rescue agencies.

“We just got dive certified, two summers ago,” Schuler said.

Both Schuler and Gasseling attended training together. 

“Training is getting harder because there’s not as many instructors around. There used to be one in Scottsbluff, so it was just a matter of sending to Bluffs to do their certifications and go through the class. Then they go dive at Minatare to do their open water,” Schuler said. “We fortunately got in with Bridgeport, Minatare, Bayard.”

“It was multiple Nebraska agencies hosting the class,” Gasseling said. 

“We just got in with the class they were hosting. It was three of us that got in that class because Albert (Lira, team captain) is trying to breathe so new life into the dive team,” Schuler said. “Guys are just getting older, families so there are some younger guys that have gotten on the department and have kind of taken an interest in that. We had to go all the way to North Platte to do our open water, to finish it out. That was a trip. Other than that, it’s just your typical getting dive certified.” 

“Classroom time,” Gasseling added. “There’s classroom time and then you go do your open water, go through the motion of what you could encounter while you’re underwater essentially and prepare you for that.”

Schuler explained although there are many classifications of dive rescue certifications, the only real requirement is just a basic dive certification.

Each different type of rescue requires different equipment for each individual member. 

“Getting into equipment there’s wet suits and dry suits. Dry suits are a different certification,” Schuler explained. 

According to Gasseling, a different certification is required because of the positive pressure involved in the dive where dry suits are used. 

“The equipment, obviously, is really expensive. Trying to keep up with the technology which is always evolving,” Gasseling added. “We’re getting face masks now that have communications in them. A rope, that way whoever’s in the boat, they can tell us what way we need to go. If we do have a pinpointed spot of interest, we want to go look at we can dive down, and they can tell us which way to go. As Schuler said, the dry suits, wet suits, the BECs, the air bottles, it’s all very costly.”

“A lot of the stuff we dive in is in sandy bottoms. There are hang-ups. There are trees, rocks. For instance, we went out to assist with Platte County at Grey Rocks this summer and we were seeing boulders the size of school buses. We ended up not diving," Schuler said. "We didn’t have enough divers comfortable enough to go in 50 feet deep around these obstacles. If you were to get down in one of those crevasses or whatnot, you can two-way, ‘Hey, I’m wrapped up in something down here.’ That way on topside, they will know, ‘Okay, we need to start planning if he’s stuck, if he’s not able to get himself free.’ Our backup divers are ready.”

Each dive has back up divers, according to both Schuler and Gasseling. Gasseling stressed, once more, any time the dive team is called out to respond to a call, it is a high-risk situation. 

Gasseling and Schuler estimated, to outfit one diver, the cost is close to $2,000, not including training.

“We also have a sonar unit, which is a very high-tech fish finder that helps us scan the lakes,” Gasseling said. 

With the river running through town, the dive team is also trained in swift water rescue. Gasseling explained canals and ditches fall into the swift water category. 

“Years ago, it used to kind of a big deal to go swim the river down here because it is right down main street,” Schuler said. “I had a stepsister, she lost two friends that drowned in the river. Water safety is something we push.”

“In the summer, especially when people would like to enjoy it, that’s when it’s moving the fastest, the most dangerous essentially for swimming and rescue operations for us. The current is you can’t duplicate it. There is no room for error is the big thing,” Gasseling added. 

The team is trained in ice water rescue. 

“That one is kind of hard to train on because obviously, we don’t have thick enough ice,” Schuler said. 

With their dive rescue certification, the team is able to dive into open bodies of water to rescue people in danger. 

To help offset the cost of much-needed equipment for the team, they received a donation from the Knights of Columbus which was matched by the church.

“We are happy to support the dive people,” Ted Church, officer for the Knights of Columbus said. “If it can stimulate other people into donating that would be great. It (the team) is potentially important to all of us but hopefully, we never have to use it.”