Nashua dive team sharpens ice rescue skills during training at Pennichuck pond

It’s an odd experience, crawling like a spider across the underside of ice on a frozen pond, an opaque ceiling above, the dark below, and silence surrounding you. “It’s very peaceful, seeing the air bubbles coming up around you. It’s quite beautiful,” said firefighter Julian Reed, a private with Nashua Fire Rescue and a member of its dive rescue team. “It’s a strange dichotomy. It’s peaceful, but it’s stressful, because you’re doing a rescue.” Peaceful, stressful and very cold if, like Reed, your glove detaches from your thermal suit.