The District 14 Dive Team conducted a rescue and recovery exercise on White Pond on February 22. The Town of Concord’s Fire Department hosted this multi-town effort. The team did a great job! Four dummies were sunk before the dive team arrived. Participants were timed on how fast they could recover the items from the bottom of the pond. All were recovered in a timely manner.
Watching these brave people working in the icy, cold water was amazing. White Pond is a 40 acre kettle pond with both shallow and deep waters. This exercise was held from the town beach working outwardly in a grid up to 200 feet from the shore. While the dive team was in the water, they graciously pulled up abandoned recreational property related to swimming and boating that had sunk to the bottom. They identified a boat sitting on the bottom about 150 feet off the shore. Litter is more visible on land, in waterways it can be more difficult to see and recover.
This beneficial exercise made me think more deeply about respecting our waterways and how with thoughtful prevention we can keep both ourselves and our waterways safe. To the District 14 Dive Team and to the Concord Fire Department, thank you for this exercise and for bringing about this awareness.
Jane Prentiss
Fern Street