Underwater Rescues Ruled Out For Divers

Rescue divers in Yakima County will no longer attempt underwater rescues, after two divers died in a failed rescue attempt in an irrigation canal.

Instead of trying to save people who are submerged, county dive teams will only attempt to recover bodies, Sheriff Doug Blair said Thursday.

“There’s no sense in risking the life of the divers,” Blair said. “We’ve never had a save.”

It takes too much time for divers to put on their suits and head into the water for a rescue to succeed, Blair said.

“Anyone who’s above surface and in peril, we’re going to be there as quickly as we can,” he said. “But people need to know that people are just not saved when they go beneath the surface.”

The county’s dive team also will no longer venture into irrigation canal siphons unless they have been drained.

The policy changes are a response to the deaths of four divers March 15 in an irrigation canal near the Yakima Valley town of Zillah.

Two volunteer search-and-rescue divers, Rusty Hauber and Charlie “J.R.” Mestaz, died in a rescue attempt in a water-filled canal siphon. The half-mile long, 104-foot deep tube is used to carry water through uneven terrain.

The county’s rescue team was called to the siphon after John Eberle and Marty Rhode failed to return to the surface after an hour under water.

Eberle and Rhode, whose bodies were recovered days later, were contracted by the Roza Irrigation District to remove abandoned cars from the siphon.

Two investigations are under way.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office launched a combined probe into the accident to determine its cause. The state Department of Labor and Industries is reviewing the public agencies’ safety procedures.

Several commercial diving experts have said it appears safe-diving practices weren’t followed.

Blair said Hauber and Mestaz acted responsibly during the rescue attempt and were the county dive team’s most-highly trained members.

They knew the distance, depth and how far down the other divers had traveled, Blair said.

“They should have had sufficient air to make that dive,” he said. “We’re still focusing on some sort of equipment failure at this point.”