Isabella County dive team adds five new members

The Isabella County Dive Rescue Team has expanded its crew from seven to 12 volunteers.

New members to the team include five volunteer firemen and two paramedics, funded through their respective fire departments or themselves.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said the additional dive team members are necessary to ensure the county provides the community with enough personnel in emergency waterway situations.

He said in the past, when dive members were out of town, it made it more difficult to respond to calls with enough crew members, particularly on holidays.

“We want to make sure we have enough people available to call to do it safely,” Mioduszewski said.

Because of safety, the dive team needs at least four to five people to execute the dive, he said. Each dive requires one or two divers, in addition to people there to work the ropes, which becomes even more difficult when the team must deal with fast moving currents.

“By having 12 people to respond to calls, hopefully four, five or six will respond to do things safely,” he said.

Mioduszewski said the dive team responds to various situations including: recovering drowned bodies, rescuing drowning victims, recovering evidence from the waterways in Isabella County, as well as supporting events on lakes and waterways through public safety presentations.

Although the five new members are not police officers like the team’s other seven members, Mioduszewski said the new crew members will still be able to assist in the majority of the aspects the members of the police department usually do, including recovering stolen property.

With the additional members, the dive team will have enough personnel to handle nearly any type of emergency situation in or on the water.