A rescue diver with 30 years of experience told what he never got used to in the service

Sergey Ambrazhey Topic news

OSVOD rescue diver Sergey Ambrazhey literally immerses himself in his work every day. In his profession there is no place for feelings - in order to act at depth, first of all, you need a cold mind. And also - excellent HEALTH , because the main task of Sergei is to save the life of a drowning man, which means that there should be enough strength for two. How to stay afloat in any weather and season, asked the Aquaman of our days.

Be constantly on the lookout

The Tsnyanskoye reservoir is the blue pearl of the Sovetsky district and one of the popular recreation areas for MINSK residents. Six equipped beaches, bicycle paths, catering points, wooden gazebos, on the one hand - a forest. Noisy roads with rushing cars are left behind, but here, by the water, it is calm and good. Perhaps that is why at the height of the season people come to the beloved Tsnyanka from all over the capital. At its peak, up to 5 thousand people can be on the beaches!

The day of our arrival was not as hot as it usually happens in mid-July. There are few vacationers on the beaches, but even behind them, according to our hero, you need an eye and an eye. Many swimmers do not calculate their strength, so Sergei Ambrazhey and his colleagues are in full combat readiness every second of the duty.

“One swam after the buoys, the second rowed to the middle of the reservoir, the third was carried away on a mattress away from the shore ... You need to strictly follow the order, otherwise chaos will begin, then it will definitely not be safe,” Sergei Konstantinovich begins the conversation, every now and then looking at the water smooth surface. - Most, when drowning, start screaming and waving their arms: save, help! And only those who know physics understand: the more bodies stick out of the water, the more will go under it. I think it's better to warn a person, talk to him, explain the consequences of behavior from the category of "see how I can!". If necessary, call the police to stop drunk vacationers, who most often arrange rash swims, than to look for them at the bottom later.

- What are the buoys for? - Sergey Ambrazhey asks a question and, while we are thinking, he himself answers it: - Not so that the rescuers would not allow us to swim for them. Buoys show people where you can swim, where the bottom is cleared by divers from stones, foreign objects and any debris. Do you know that the human brain lives under water for a very short time?! And we must have time not only to receive a message, to get into the boat, but also to find the place where the person went under water. Every second counts.

When it comes to himself, Sergei Konstantinovich notices: his whole life from early childhood is connected with water. In the second grade I came to swim in a sports school. He did not achieve too great results, but this hobby, the rescuer believes, predetermined the choice of profession. In 1995, he joined the Ministry of Emergency Situations . First he was a fireman, then a lifeguard. When a diving and rescue service was organized in Belarus, Sergei Ambrazhey was among the first to join it. He served there until his retirement. And then he became a rescuer in OSVOD, having the 7th category - the highest qualification of a diving specialist.

- I have been working as a diver for almost 30 years, but I am still wary of water. This is an unconquered element, it inspires fear. I saw a lot of deaths. He personally raised about 50 bodies to the surface, - says our hero. - I saw a lot of tears when relatives cannot believe in the death of a loved one. It seems to them that he left with friends, even if he went to another city, country, but he didn’t drown. Until the last hope: he is about to start breathing.

Adults are responsible for children

When there is literally nowhere for an APPLE to fall on the beach, it is difficult to keep track of everyone at once. The sailors-rescuers keep a tireless watch, peering into the distance through binoculars. They especially control kids who are left unattended by adults or in the company of tipsy.

- Parents have a request: do not forget about your children. For a mother, a tan should not be more important than the life of a child. How it happens in practice: she lay down on her stomach, and the children are poking around in the sand near the water, they took a step - and there is depth ... It's good if an outsider manages to grab the child and bring it to the shore, - says the rescuer and notes that people often come to each other on revenue.

Of particular concern to rescuers are always caused by beachgoers who took before the swimALCOHOL .

- Approximately 90% of the drowned, which I got from the bottom, were able toalcohol intoxication . It seems to them that the sea is knee-deep, but only up to the first hole. In such cases, the diver spends more time preparing for the descent into the water than searching for and raising the corpse, explains Sergey Ambrazhey.

He notes that the current generation is much more conscious:

- In the dashing 90s - early 2000s, they drank much more. It used to happen that I had not yet had time to take up duty, especially on weekends, and already three applications had been received to search for people. I remember that five drowned men were raised in a day.

There are funny cases in the work of rescuers. Probably, humor helps them stay in the profession longer. One of these oddities happened a few years ago in the winter on the Minsk Sea.

- An ice floe with a grandfather-fisherman broke away from the shore. He floats on it, like Umka from a cartoon, while continuing to catch with a bait. A whole rescue operation was launched: in a matter of seconds, a hovercraft was sent to his rescue, divers dive into the icy water ... When grandfather is transported to a safe place, they ask: will you go fishing again? He nods: I’ll go, but first I’ll buy a life jacket on the market, Sergey Konstantinovich smiles.

He sails on a boat and habitually looks out for children without parents, naughty teenagers, drunks. At the same time, he notes: people have become much more law-abiding, a more adequate attitude to their health and life has appeared.

- It would be desirable that, stepping into the water, a person does not forget about safety. You have no idea how morally difficult it is to raise children and young people from the bottom. After all, they are the future of the country. One, second, third person drowned - it seems that these are units, but we are losing out of the blue this water surface of life, - he argues.

The diver is known in the water

To become a rescue diver, one desire is not enough. You need good health, because sometimes you have to work under water for hours, sometimes in very difficult conditions and, moreover, under pressure. The load under water is several times higher than when performing the same work on land. What else you need to have in this profession is nerves of steel. Finding and raising the inanimate to the top is a huge psychological shock.

- I saw many who dreamed of becoming rescue divers, who turned out to be mentally unprepared for what really awaits them. We do not walk along the bottom, but crawl. We are looking for an object with my whole body - I try to grope with my hands and feet so as not to face it eye to eye, - says Sergey Konstantinovich. - You try to explore the whole square to the last atmosphere of air, do not give up. As they say, the absence of a result for a diver is also a result.

Even being on vacation at sea with his family, Sergei Ambrazhey does not relax. Already several times carried drowning people out of the water.

- It's creepy when you find a body that has been under water for a while. Over the years, you try to get used to everything, you learn to look at the drowned man only as an object of search. But all the same, when you pull it out on land, then you worry for a long, long time, although you need to be able to abstract, otherwise it is simply impossible in our profession. Whoever fails, they leave, - concludes rescue diver Ambrazhey.

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Marina VALAKH,

photo Vitaly PIVOVARCHIK,

newspaper "7 days".