Indiana Smoke Diver History

The Indiana Smoke Diver story began in 2006 when David Rhodes and Brent Hullender were approached by their friend, then-Captain Matt Stewart, about attending the Georgia Smoke Diver course. At the time, the course was operated through the Georgia Fire Academy, and out-of-state students were not permitted to attend. After several phone calls and ongoing correspondence between Stewart, Rhodes, and the GFA, a path was finally created for Stewart to enroll.

In October 2006, Stewart traveled to Georgia alone and was paired with another non-Georgia firefighter from Ohio. Together, they became the first non-Georgia firefighters ever accepted into the program. Both graduated from Class 35, a class in which only seven students successfully completed the course. Stewart earned Georgia Smoke Diver #662 and became the first firefighter from Indiana to complete the program.

When Stewart returned to the Wayne Township Fire Department, he immediately began implementing changes to equipment, training, and operations that had been influenced by his experience in the course. He also encouraged other Wayne Township firefighters to attend. Two years later, another Indiana firefighter completed the program when Nolan Bastien graduated from Class 38. From that point forward, at least one Indiana firefighter successfully completed every subsequent class.

Matt Boone and Kevin Popp completed the next class, which would be the last held in Forsyth, Georgia, before the program moved to north Georgia. Dan Spall became the fifth Indiana firefighter to graduate, completing the first class held in Dalton, GA.

The number of Indiana Smoke Divers steadily grew until there were 11 Indiana graduates, along with one Georgia Smoke Diver who had relocated to the Indianapolis area. On December 13, 2011, those 12 firefighters met at Teddy’s Burger Joint to discuss bringing the program to Indianapolis. The group agreed the training needed to be established locally, and work immediately began to launch the first Indiana Smoke Diver course in 2013.

In 1978, Cortez Lawrence led a small group of dedicated Georgia firefighters to create an instructor base for the launch of the Georgia Smoke Diver Program.  The original course was based on training methodology originating in the European fire service.  Cortez (Smoke Diver #1) researched these techniques and combined them with training he received from the Florida Smoke Diver Course in 1977.  This first Smoke Diver class, held in December 1978 at the Southern Tech/Georgia Fire Academy Campus, graduated thirteen members who were deemed “the elite few, strong in mind and body”.  To mark the accomplishment a black t-shirt was designed along with a rocker patch.