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Divers from the Greensburg Fire Department and Murrysville Medic One were honing their rescue skills Sunday in the murky waters of a Ligonier Township lake, training for that time when they will be asked to find a body or recover criminal evidence tossed to the bottom of a reservoir.

“This gives them experience working together, experience with the equipment,” said George McFarland, captain of the Greensburg Fire Department Dive Team, as he stood on the shore of the H.A. Stewart Reservoir off Route 259.

They also learn what skills they need to hone so when they are called to perform a search they have the experience they need to do the job, McFarland said.

He has been a member of the department’s dive team for more than 50 years.

McFarland and about 13 other divers were participating in a three-day class to earn a recertification or a certification as a dive rescue specialist one.

“We’re doing it to better our skills,” said Kyle Englert, a diver for Murrysville Medic One.

The three-day class included eight hours of classroom instruction, plus 500 yards of swimming at the Greensburg YMCA, 15 minutes of treading water with two minutes of keeping the hands raised and towing a “distressed” diver 100 yards — all exercises that were timed.

They also had to retrieve a weight from 9 feet of water, said John Soderberg, a veteran Pittsburgh Police dive master and paramedic crew chief serving as the instructor for Dive Rescue International.

When they dived in the clear pool at the Greensburg YMCA, Soderberg said the divers’ goggles were blacked out so they could simulate what they experience in a pond or river, Soderberg said.

On Sunday, they were practicing scenarios in which they had to rescue fellow divers posing as drowning victims. It’s a world apart from the scuba diving vacationers might do in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean, Soderberg said.

“You’re diving in zero visibility. You can’t see in front of your face, surveying the bottom for a body or evidence,” Soderberg said.

McFarland called it “the Helen Keller method,” referring to the blind author and political activist. “You feel around, and it’s like Braille,” discarding what is not important until the “target” is found. “If you bump into a body, then that’s the target.”

Instead of diving with partners, as is often done in recreational diving, Soderberg said one diver goes into the water while the partner is on the shore, holding the line tethered to the diver and electronically communicating with that diver.

“This is one of the most hazardous public safety jobs you can do,” said Soderberg, a city public safety employee for 32 years, including a stint as a firefighter. Soderberg said he has dived in all kinds of weather and dealt with all kinds of hazards that are hidden in Pittsburgh’s three rivers.

McFarland pointed out they are doing that with as much as 100 pounds of gear on their back, with a 30-pound weight to keep them hugging the bottom so they can conduct their search.

Underwater obstacles are just part of the hazards they face each time they go into the water. The divers who searched for and eventually recovered the body of Dylan Knopsnider, 21, of Connellsville, from the Creek Falls section of Jacobs Creek in June 2018, faced them during that search, which lasted for a few days.

“You had turbulence from the falls. You had … downed trees. Water goes through them, not people,” McFarland said.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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