BALTIMORE — A rescue diver for eight years now, Gregory Nelson continues his training in the swimming pool at Digital Harbor High School.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Nelson and his fellow members of the Special Operations Command had faced the real thing—-responding to a report of a man floating in the water of the Inner Harbor near the pier 6 pavilion, and just two weeks earlier, they had saved a woman’s life in much the same way.
“In both those instances, Rescue 1, my company with two swimmers in the water right away made immediate contact with that victim, got their head turned over, got them stabilized,” said Nelson.
The dive team dates back to half a century ago and its work came into full view for the city in 2004 when heavy winds caused a water taxi to capsize killing five people that took more than a week to recover.
Each member of the dive team is also a full-time firefighter, and they say that in many instances, going into the water is more dangerous than going into a burning house.
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“They always say we’re 25 percent more likely to be injured or killed by being under the water,” said Dive Team Coordinator Lt. Josh Shaffer, “If anything goes wrong, it could quickly become a catastrophe for us.”
But facing danger is nothing new for the team.
“It’s going to take an act of God to stop me from getting in that water to get somebody out,” said Nelson.
It’s a level of commitment that can be most notably measured in lives saved.
“The amount of drowning rescues that fire department or public safety diving teams make in a year is handfuls, and we’ve made two in two weeks,” said Nelson, “I think it’s a testament to all the hard work and all the investment—-everything we’ve been doing here in the city to make that happen.”
