BARSTOW — Descending about 30 feet into a mine shaft by rope, search and rescue volunteer James Hutchinson could barely see, but he could hear his teammates manning the ropes at the top as if they were next to him.

“I could hear perfectly in the hole, all the way down,” he said.

Hutchinson was one of about a dozen members of the all-volunteer Barstow Desert Rescue Squad and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Cave Rescue Team who were trying out a new communications system during a mine rescue training Saturday. They practiced rappelling into the shaft of an abandoned mine in the Yermo area throughout the morning, using various techniques and configurations of equipment.

In the recent past, Hutchinson might not have been able to hear his team as clearly. Their communication system was 20 years old and allowed only two people to talk at once, said longtime Desert Rescue Squad volunteer Daryl Schendel.

The new system, which arrived at the Barstow sheriff’s station Thursday, not only allows up to six people to talk, but the setup of the cords allows four teams to fan out in different directions and stay in contact. The rescuers’ voices are carried over 1,250 feet of wire similar to a telephone line, Schendel said. The new system also includes a box that rescuers can lower into a shaft to communicate with a fall victim before rescuers descend into the hole.

The new communications equipment was came to Barstow via a grant from the state Office of Emergency Services. The $60,000 grant was split between mine rescue teams in San Bernadino, Kern, and Los Angeles County, said Lt. Glenn Grabiec with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department volunteer forces unit.

Grabiec oversees about 550 search and rescue volunteers split between 22 teams in the county. The 14 members of the Barstow team, who specialize in mine rescue, get together for general training once a week and for specialized training, like Saturday’s mine drill, once a month, Schendel said.

“You hope you don’t have to use it,” he said. “You hope you’re just training to train.”

But the team has needed to put its mine rescue skills to practice in the not-too-distant past. In 2006, one man died after falling down a shaft while exploring an abandoned mine near Calico Ghost Town. Another man was severely injured after he fell down the same shaft a week later.

When the next emergency comes, Schendel said, “This should allow us to have consistent communication with the subject and with all the rescuers, where we weren’t able to do that before.”

For more information on the Barstow Desert Rescue Squad or to volunteer, call the Barstow sheriff’s station at 760-256-4838.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com