Sunlight glistened on Lake Zoar Sunday morning, when Leyenda Harley, of Hamden, and Soshi, her five-year-old English shepherd with a light brown and white coat, boarded Stevenson Fire Boat 1, which was docked at the boat launch behind Lake Zoar Drive-In on Route 34 in Monroe. The red Whaly was captained by Stevenson Assistant Fire Chief Eric Christensen, who guided the motorized vessel out onto the open water.
Harley is a member of Resources in Search and Rescue Inc., a nonprofit whose dogs assist law enforcement, firefighters and dive teams with searches for missing people and the recovery human remains on dry land and in water. Her dog took part in a joint water rescue exercise with firefighters from Stevenson Volunteer Fire Department and Newtown Underwater Search & Rescue (NURSAR).
“It’s hugely helpful, because it better mimics real life situations,” Harley said of training with firefighters and the divers from NURSAR. “There’s not as many opportunities for water rescue training.”
Soshi is trained for live finds of missing people, water recovery and human remains detection. Harley wanted to take a boat ride with her dog before Sunday’s search and rescue training began.
“She was never on this type of boat,” Harley said.
Christensen said the SVFD used to have an inflatable dingy, but it was getting older and firefighters routinely had to make sure it had enough air. By contrast, the Whaly is plastic and filled with foam.
“It’s resilient,” Christensen said, adding firefighters could drag it through woods after coming to shore during a search without worrying about it tearing.
Aside from a contingent of volunteer firefighters, the Stevenson Fire Co. invited six junior firefighters to participate in Sunday’s training.
“Joint training with other resources is great,” Christensen said. “We’ve done a lot of training with NUSAR, but not with RSAR. This will be a good learning curve for us to see how the dogs work with our boat.”
Stevenson’s firefighters have not performed any search and rescue operations this summer. When a boat capsizes, Christensen said Lake Zoar is narrow, so most accident victims can get to the shore on the side by the time emergency responders arrive.
Over the years, town firefighters have responded to drowning incidents and searches for lost and injured hikers in the surrounding forestland, according to Christensen. Because their boat is kept on a trailer, Stevenson’s firefighters have also provided mutual aid for water rescues in other parts of the state.
“If we’re toned out, the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department responds too for mutual aid,” he said of calls on Lake Zoar. “The Oxford Firehouse is beyond the trees. They usually come with their boat, so between us it’s usually a joint effort.”
Boats, divers and dogs
NUSAR brought boats 993 and 994 to the training, as well as divers Hans Williams, Zach Marchetti and Capt. Connor Rieve.
“We have sonar,” Rieve said. “Our main boat is 993. We have a side scanner and 994 has a 360 sonar. It’s like radar for the water. Twelve of us are here today.”
Resources in Search and Rescue Inc. (RSAR) brought five volunteers, four dogs and a puppy in training, according to Cathy Kohut, one of the nonprofit’s founders in 2009 and the current treasurer. Kohut is also a Monroe Town Council member.
“I have a dual trained K-9,” Kohut said of Fiona, her German shepherd. “She does human remains and live finds.”
RSAR President Celeste Robitaille brought her 13-week-old Dutch shepherd puppy named Delta and a nine-year-old Dutch shepherd named Echo. Robitaille, a retired Stratford police lieutenant, used to be its K-9 officer. Now an officer for Beacon Falls, she offers the free services of Echo.
Robitaille held a fishing rod with a piece of metal with an odor on it that floats in water. It’s used to train new dogs, who see if bobbing up and down, then being pulled under the water. When a dog looks to see where it went, the animal is rewarded.
“A Rhode Island trooper came up with this. It’s genius,” she said.
Aside from her English shepherd, Harley also brought her Karelian Bear Dog, Traveler, who is only trained for water searches.
Creating a scenario
NUSAR Chief Mike McCarthy explained the rescue mission. His organization would have three divers alternating as RSAR volunteers took turns taking a dog aboard Stevenson Fire 1 to find a diver hiding underwater.
When a dog alerted its owner of a diver’s location, the diver would be told to swim to the surface, where he would reward the dog with a hot dog.
On a real mission, McCarthy said a dog will get a hit on a person’s location and the sonar on NUSAR’s boats will confirm it.
Aboard NUSAR’s Boat 993, Hans Williams wore his drysuit, which does not let water in. He was going into the water first.
Zach Marchetti and Connor Rieve sat side-by-side, wearing drysuits and scuba tanks. Marchetti, who was not in the shade on the hot day, asked for water several times to cool off.
At different times, Zach Ralsky and Matt Rownin, of Monroe, two NUSAR members, dipped a red cup into water beside the boat and dumped it over Marchetti’s head. Marchetti and Rieve also drank bottled water to hydrate.
Dawn Singer, vice president of NUSAR, performed shore support. She held a color coded card which is used as a checklist to make sure conditions for the divers are safe. It includes the amount of air in the tanks, ensuring straps and fins are secure and lights and inflators are functioning, to name a few things.
Singer wears headphones which are part of a communication system, allowing her to talk to divers in the water.
“When you reach the bottom, I want your PSIs,” she said. “When I ask for their PSI, they know I have to have one. I ask frequently.”
McCarthy said a diver could last 20 to 30 minutes underwater before being pulled out with a little air in reserve. NUSAR members in the boat hold a line and are on hand to help a diver if he or she gets snagged.
Underwater hazards can include getting stuck to trees, and old boats and cars that previously sunk to the bottom of a body of water, according to McCarthy.
On Sunday, Rownin and Kyle Mortenson, a NUSAR member, manned the line.
Earning hot dogs
Williams went into Lake Zoar and swam toward a yellow buoy with a red and white flag.
“Hans, put the rope in your right hand. You’re sweeping to the right,” Singer said over the radio, “and how’s your visibility? What is your depth? … five feet.”
Harley and her dog, Traveler, went first, motoring out on Stevenson Fire 1.
After the Whaly made a sweep, it neared the right side of the buoy and the Karelian Bear Dog became agitated while standing at the bow of the boat, biting at the water to signal it caught Williams’ scent.
“He can come up,” Harley called out.
Moments later, Williams broke to the surface of the water, hot dog in hand, and fed Traveler the treat.
Robitaille took Echo aboard the Whaly next and Marchetti had traded placed with Williams, finally getting relief from the summer heat. Because of the wind, McCarthy told his crew to have Marchetti swim about 20 feet from the buoy.
“Her alert is to sit,” Robitaille said of Echo. The dog closed its mouth and started sniffing. “She has a scent when she’s over the bow,” Robitaille said. “Her standard is to alert within 20 feet of the source.”
The Dutch shepherd became agitated, started barking and moved up to get closer to the water. The dog looked back at its owner. Robitaille said it was hard for Echo to sit in a boat she wasn’t used to.
Marchetti was signaled to come up and he fed Echo her reward.
“Good girl!” Robitaille praised Echo. “Did he just give you a hot dog? Good girl!”
Harley brought Soshi onto the boat for the second time Sunday, this time with a mission and it didn’t take long for the English Shepherd to pick up Rieve’s scent and signal her owner by sitting down.
The diver looked like a monster when he came up, because his suit was covered with Eurasian milfoil, an invasive green weed that grows in the lake. Soshi hung back at the site of Rieve, who gave Harley the hot dog to feed to her pet.
“Keep Connor out there,” McCarthy called out, explaining that he had enough air for the lost dog, so there was no need to switch to another diver.
Singer asked for an air pressure reading to confirm.
Kohut and her dog, Fiona, performed the last mission, before the emergency responders gathered together for a briefing to assess how their day went.
Fiona stood at the bow of the Whaly and was vocal for much of the ride, barking and biting at the water after picking up Rieve’s scent.
“Pull him up,” Singer called out from the boat launch. “Good job Finny! What a good job they did. Matt, we can pull him in.”
The training exercise ended at 10:49 a.m.
“They all did good,” Singer said of the dogs. “They all did great. This is good for them.”
Several photo galleries below capture events of the day:
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