I spent 10 years as a volunteer rescue diver on our towns fire department. We did boat rescue, ice rescue and near shore SCUBA operations. Our gear was always on our rescue truck and we would regularly do training in quick rescue response.

We did several recoveries of bodies from motor vehicle accidents as part of our response as MVA rescuers. If there was more than a 1 hour window and we couldn't find anything, we would pass the job over to the law enforcement divers . We would assist in moving cars and trucks out of the water for environmental reasons. (It's pretty easy to find a car submerged in a freshwater lake, often they still have their lights on)

During my time with the team, we saved a dog that fell through the ice, and pulled several cars containing dead people out of lakes and rivers.

The dive rescue part of our team was disbanded when our town became amalgamated with the larger city. We still do ice rescue.

Three years after the team was disbanded, a woman (a former girlfriend of mine) and her five year old boy drove off the road into a flooded bog. Rescuers had to jump into freezing water in street clothes to recover their bodies. She was revived on scene after spending 5-10 minutes submerged, but the boy spent 25 minutes underwater. He fully recovered 6 days later after being pretty much flatline for three days.

We were always taught that "in cold water drowning a person isn't dead until they are warm and dead". That little pithy line in a boring rescue seminar probably saved two peoples lives. Both our crews and the paramedics treated the patients based on the possibility that they could be revived.

What you are doing is a good service to the community, especially if it does not have a SAR dive team nearby. And don't discount the possibility that you will be doing a rescue someday. It only has to happen once to make a difference for somebody.