Around daybreak of Thursday December 6, 2007 the wheels start turning as member of 24 years Wayne Dunford and Paul Herrell go to pick up and ready a 40 ft. trailer capable of carrying the 12,000 lb boat after the recovery is complete.  Chief Decker and his crew starts assembling their own Rescue Divers, Fire members, Rescue Personnel and the services of a local Dock Builder Richard “Dickie” Dill who was the Departments original Chief for the first 12 years of the life of the Department to recover the corpse of “FIREBOAT 11-5”. 

Actual  recovery operations begin at approximately 1 pm when the barge-mounted crane of Dickie Dills’ arrived on scene.  We began by meeting with Mr. Dill and setting up our safety plan and how to stop operations with the noise level we had while the crane, compressors, and pumps were all operating.

Deputy Chief David Scoggins was in command of the scene with Mr. Dill leading operations of the recovery.  Two Rescue Divers of the Smith Mountain Lake Marine Vol. Fire/Rescue clad in their Dry Suits dropped into the 49-degree murky waters of Smith Mountain Lake where they will remain continuously for 2 and 1/2 hours.  First job at hand was to drop in and just see how the fireboat was resting and find 2 attachment points to connect the cables from the crane hovering over them.  The assessment was made so now the recovery part of this operation is underway.  Two massive one inch steel cables were fed down to the divers with both divers working together in the cold murky water the cables were attached and they surfaced.  The divers swam to a safe area while the cables are drawn taunt with the massive crane of Mr. Dill.  I was astonished to see how the crew of Dickie’s worked with only hand signals and a few whistles from the director of operations Dickie Dill.  As soon as the crane had taken all the slack out the heavy cables the divers were ask to swim back into the area to descend and make sure all cables were clear from hanging onto any of the many obstacles on and around the sunken fireboat.  With putting slack in one cable the divers were able to free the cables and the lifting operations could begin.

The Fireboat begins to creak and twist as the crane begins the task of raising Fireboat 11-5 from its grave in Smith Mountain Lake.  While many task were being performed simultaneously from our safety crews watching for any potential hazards, the divers remain in the water awaiting further orders from command. 

Dickie began orchestrating movement of the barge, constantly  maneuvering the crane directly over the stern of FB 11-5 then all of a sudden the lifeless Fireboat  begins to move, to rise from the dead.  At this point Dickie wants to use an additional resource we had on scene, which were Air Bags manufactured for lifting in the water.  This decision is not just for the lifting power of the bags but a second lifting source incase one would fail during the operations.  Divers install the two bags while never putting themselves under the fireboat it is a risky operation anytime you have a diver in the water during these types of operations.  The two airbags are tied off and lifting operations are begun again.

The forward deck begins to break the water Deputy Chief Scoggins and Firefighter Mark Overstreet start siphon operation on the forward compartments in an attempt to lighten the load of 8.3 lbs. for every gallon they can remove from this 30 ft. fireboat.  The 1250 gpm pump of Fireboat 11-6 being operated by Capt. Al Busch would supply all the water needed for the lifting of Fireboat 11-5.

Soon after one Siphon is installed Dickie has the boat lifted high enough to start another siphon and the boat begins rising at a quicker pace.  Soon we have two 3 inch lines running at 100 psi each feeding 2 separate siphons and a total of 4 drawing out the water but pumping new life back into FB 5.

Approximately 3 hours after actual operations begin we have FB 5 floating. but  this ordeal is long from over.

We start unhooking cables getting ready to move the boat up the lake to remove it from the water while Dickie and myself were speaking he notices the boat is beginning to list to one side this means yes it is taking on water fast enough it is going down again unless we can get every thing running and reconnected immediately. 

While one crew led by Deputy Chief Scoggins resumes pumping operations Dickie has his crew to reattach the crane, again team work is what saved us from losing the 30 ft. Munson Fireboat into the JAWS of Smith Mountain Lake for the THIRD time.  Yes this "Munson Fireboat" had been on the bottom once before when we first received the boat. The  new Fireboat hadn't been put into service when we found it on the bottom January 14, 2000.

From this point our recovery operations completely went into a different direction.  Now we new without Dickie and his crew continuously lifting the boat and Fireboat 1 now pumping water out we would not get this boat secured tonight.  The trailer for the haul out now stationed miles up the lake in Bedford County would now need to be transported through Franklin County and moved to Penhook in Pittsylvania County for hauling out of the Water.  We now proceeded to Dickie’s home dock “Lakeside Marina” that he has owned and operated for at least 35 years. 

All this has taken place on Thursday while all fire calls are still covered and any kind of Administrative meetings went on seamlessly thanks to all the dedicated members of our department.

 Now FB 6 (fireboat 11-6) is going to return to quarters with the divers and gear while FB 8 loaded with fresh crew members and FB 1 will remain tied to the barge while Dickie and his crew manage to snake this complete conglomerate of barge, crane, tug boat, and 3 fireboats down the lake as one unit.

Enough can not be said about Dickie Dill and his crew for the dedication, professionalism and going beyond the call of duty to assist our Fire Company in such a tough situation.