We had another one today

[Gary D.]

The pager reads, after it’s long obnoxious beeping; “MISSING PERSON IN THE WATER AT MOKINS BAY ON HAYDEN MEET AT HONERSUCKLE BEACH 12:48 PM 5/19/07”.

I call the office to see what’s up because I can’t respond. I’m tied up in Spokane.

Later I learned the team had a good response time and made the recovery of a 17 year old male who was with another 17 year old male and flipped a canoe. Everything was going good but at the hospital the pronounced him.

I’ll let Gary M. do a report as he was the one who did the recovery.

This is not starting out to be a very good year and the kids are still in school.

Gary D.

 

[Jim Ernst]

Very sad news Gary!!!!!!!!!!

Very Scary..... I have a 17 yr old daughter.

I am glad the good people like you can handel this stuff.

I am an EMT, but when I go there is still a good chance they are alive.

 

[Gary D.]

Here is one article and a video.

http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=6540167

Another one.

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/05/20/news/news03.txt

And today we had this.

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/05/20/news/news04.txt

44 minutes may not sound like a long time but in a drowning case it is. But here is the chain of events.

Accident happens at or near 1300 hours.
LEO’s contacted and the team paged.
Marine has to respond to the marine building and hook onto the boats. Then drive roughly 4 miles through heavy construction and launch at a closed ramp.
Dive team responds to the ramp load gear onto the boats.
Then motor across a 4000 acre lake to the accident scene arriving at approx. 1320 hours.
Get some interviews done to get a rough idea as to the location. The boats location isn’t that good as the wind is blowing it around.
Gets a search going in the 2-3 vis.
Victim found and recovered roughly 24 minutes from their arrival on scene.

I think they did a good job.

Gary D.

 

[Wildcard]

What if they had????? What if then would have done????? Had they been able to swim??? My whole life has been spent dealing with this kind of stuff...People do not understand when I get so excited about not being trained/prepaired/ready for what ever may be qoing on. If you cant swim, learn! or stay the hell out of the water....
One nightmarish week in Sacramento I ran four drownings, three drunks in the river and a 4y/o in a pool....If you ever get a chance to have a week like that, pass.

 

[Rick Inman]

I watched an interview with the guy (shore fishing) who called it in to 911. He said he saw the two kids in the water hanging on to their canoe, so he figured they'd just right it and climb back in - so he did nothing. Next thing he saw was the two trying to swim to shore, and one yelling for help, going under. Then he called 911.

Sad, the bad decisions. No PFD's, leaving the canoe...

Gary, it sounds like your guys were right on it.

 

[Gary D.]

I watched an interview with the guy (shore fishing) who called it in to 911. He said he saw the two kids in the water hanging on to their canoe, so he figured they'd just right it and climb back in - so he did nothing. Next thing he saw was the two trying to swim to shore, and one yelling for help, going under. Then he called 911.

Sad, the bad decisions. No PFD's, leaving the canoe...

Gary, it sounds like your guys were right on it.

I just found out thet they were using brooms, YES BROOMS, for paddles. A friend of mine just called and said they have been doing work for him on a pt basis.

I am very proud of my guys. It was Gary M., our token fireman who made the find and recovery. This was his first one on his own so I'm a bit worried about him. 17 yoa is still a kid. He acting ok about it but time will tell.

The other two divers in the water were our least expirenced and they did a good job as well. Lane B. was able to run the show topside while I was chomping at the bit in Spokane.

Gary D.

 

[Boater Dan]

Good job by all involved. Everyone did their best to provide a positive outcome, but sometimes it is not meant to be. Still, everyone went home.

PS - Can I buy a ticket for the ride along? If I win, can I specify that I want to ride along with you?????????

Dan

 

[Gary D.]

I went out into one of the bays in the Marine Building this morning prior to going home to break down Oscar and put him away. About 10’ away sat an orange canoe with evidence tape all over it and two small brooms in it. So sad to see how something so innocent can be so deadly when it’s mistreated.

We are going back out to the scene tomorrow morning to dive it again for some more evidence.

Gary D.

 

[Gary D.]

Lane B and I got off work at 0800 this morning. He went to a couple of meetings and I went home to change out of uniform then right back to the Marine Building.

Gary M., Lane B., one of the other team members, a Marine Deputy and I hook up two boats and head for last weeks accident scene on Hayden Lake.

The boat ramp is closed due to construction around it so we plug up the ramp and just left the trailers in the water while we head to the other end of the 4000 acre lake. That POed some guy because he wanted to use the ramp closed or not.

We get to the scene and the others tell me the water has gone down. I was the only one that wasn’t there during the recovery so I didn’t have a clue.

We get a GPS reading to start our search while Lane B and Gary M. get the new AGA’s set up. This is the first time we’re using them so we didn’t hook up the com system.

They did compass runs in the area and a couple of items were found but not what we really want to find. We didn’t find the Cinder Block anchor they were trying to deploy when the canoe flipped over. It will be deep into the silt but the rope will still be visible and we didn’t find it. Hummm, could witnesses be off with the area of Lilly Pads they went in at?

Our information said they flipped and tried to swim to shore with their fishing gear. But where witnesses said they flipped Gary M. found a fishing pole. That means the anchor was further out than we were told.

So Gary M. and Lane B. keep sucking air and looking. Later Lane B. found another item but still not the one we want.

So now it’s my turn. I tried two compass runs which were very ineffective. The wind was blowing the lake into about 1’ rollers where we were which kept the bottom surge up limiting the vis and knocking me off course if I didn’t just stare at the compass. I need to look around and not just stare at the compass so that’s it plan B is in order.

I tell the guys on the other boat to give me the tow rope and pull me in the direction they swam in. Run one, nothing but I could concentrate on looking at the bottom.

We get close to shore and do a 180 degree turn. Back on course it was just a minute or two when Walla there they are. A barely visible silt covered pair of Blue Jeans. I drop the tow rope drop down the 7’ to the bottom and retrieve them. The father of the survivor, whose jeans we just recovered was watching the operation. Once we photographed them and the contents we turned them over to Dad.

Lane B did an outstanding job of following the swim-line the two took. It was windy and choppy which makes it hard to hold a jet boat on course.

The dad told us the kid that died was an only child. So very sad.

Here is the sat pic of the area.
http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1311&Y=13230&W=1
We are searching in the Lilly Pads which are a much smaller area this time of the year.

Gary D.