Minor update - Submerged person
Date: 23/05/2025
Product type: Operational Guidance
Product area: Water rescue
Link: Water rescue - Submerged person
User feedback indicated that the following two paragraphs could be misinterpreted:
Such pressure may lead to personnel feeling the need to deploy into a hazard area to save life when the benefits are not proportional to the risks. Examples, such as duck-diving or trying to enter a submerged vehicle, may be unacceptably high-risk activities.
In these instances, fire and rescue services should not deploy water rescue resources to incidents that involve a submerged person. Doing so may result in action being taken that is not supported by legislation, policy, procedure, equipment and training.
These paragraphs have been combined, with two words changed, and published as:
Such pressure may lead to personnel feeling the need to deploy into a hazard area to save life when the benefits are not proportional to the risks. Examples, such as duck-diving or trying to enter a submerged vehicle, may be unacceptably high-risk activities. In these instances, fire and rescue services should not deploy water rescue resources during incidents that involve a submerged person. Doing this may result in action being taken that is not supported by legislation, policy, procedure, equipment and training.