Welcome to the Smith Mountain Lake Emergency Response Dive (ERD) team page. The mission of Smith Mountain Lake Marine Volunteer Fire Rescue ERD is to provide search and recovery operations involving victims, evidence, and personal property on Smith Mountain Lake and surrounding areas as needed. All of our divers are highly trained dive professionals focused on diving safety. Smith Mountain Lake is a challenging and dangerous environment to conduct diving operations. Visibility is often zero and there are a number of snags (trees, shrubs, debris) in the lake. To stay proficient, our divers train in this environment often.
All ERD divers are volunteers and our equipment maintenance and purchases are funded by the generosity of our Smith Mountain Lake community. If you would like us to recover some personal property or survey an underwater area, you can email request@smlmfr.com and someone will get back o you. We only ask that you make a generous donation to the Department to offset our expenses.
The Smith Mountain Lake Marine Fire/Rescue is actively seeking new members. Members can be firefighters, EMT's or simply someone that wants to help the community. If you feel that you have that calling to help others, that is the person we would like to speak with. Please drop us a note on this page or submit an application at Bedford County Department of Fire and Rescue.
Remember, "MANY HANDS, MAKE LIGHT WORK"!