The Calgary Fire Department has announced that its dive team will not be operational this summer as previously promised, pushing the program's return to 2027. The delay comes after a tragic drowning incident at Mahogany Lake highlighted the critical need for such rescue capabilities.
Program Hiatus and Equipment Issues
According to Jamie Blayney, president of the Calgary Firefighters Association and a 21-year veteran firefighter, the department's aquatic rescue team, which included surface and underwater dive personnel, was put on hold in 2024 due to equipment and training challenges. “To date, they haven’t reinstalled the dive program into part of our day-to-day operation,” Blayney stated.
Following the deaths of two 20-year-old men who drowned in Mahogany Lake last year, the Calgary Fire Department (CFD) committed to restoring the dive team before the upcoming summer season. However, Fire Chief Steve Dongworth now says that timeline is unattainable.
Training Standards Not Yet Met
While proper equipment standards have been met, CFD members still need to satisfy Canadian diving standards, particularly for dive supervisors. “For the dive supervisor, even though we’re confident we have people who are trained already, we actually don’t have the records in the right format or in some cases we don’t have records at all,” Dongworth explained. “To prove that level of dives, it’s close to 100 dives that a dive supervisor has to do.”
Limited access to open water and the timing of equipment delivery made it impossible to complete the required 100 dives this season. “We’ve realized now we’re going to have to focus on getting all those dives done this summer so that we would then be ready to stand up the team again next summer in 2027,” Dongworth added.
Current Contracted Services and Future Plans
In the interim, CFD has contracted a provider to respond and supply dive assets within the city. Upon its return, the dive team will operate 24/7 from the Eau Claire Fire Station No. 6, replicating the model used before the program was paused.
Dongworth emphasized the importance of public education regarding water safety, noting that deep water rescues are extremely challenging. “It is very difficult, and we premise a lot of this on the hope that in very cold water, people can survive for longer than they might do in warm water, which gives us a window where we could technically, in a rare situation, we could find someone who’s viable for revival and would survive,” he said. “It just hasn’t happened, apart from one possible time in over 40 years.”
