It was early afternoon when I hear that obnoxious beeping from the little box on my left hip.
I grab it and take a look and it is a low battery alarm. So I hang it back on my hip. Before I can let go of it the beeping starts again.
It reads; “2335 ENROUTE TO A VEHICLE IN THE WATER AT HIGGINS PT 3:29PM”. As I’m thinking oh holy crapski it goes off again. “RESPOND TO HIGGINS PT VEH IN THE WATER UNK IF OCC GET FURTHER ON SCENE POSSIBLE RECOVERY 3:34PM”. I’m still wondering ***. It goes off again; “PER 2329 DIVE TEAM MEMBERS ENT REDUCE CODE CALL NANCY IN DISPATCH 4:01PM”.
Now normally I would have been out the door and rolling by 3:30 or so but this time I’m going to be a bit slower responding.
I’m in Harrison Idaho at the south end of the lake and the call is at the north end. The problem is my rig and bike trailer is 15.8 miles to the west so 15 of us have a long bike ride back to get loaded and leave.
Everyone else takes off while I get on the phone and try to handle some of this from there. Not only do we have a 16-mile bike ride, but we are 61 miles from my patrol car and another 15 miles to the scene. I’m glad he was dead already.
At 6:00 PM I’ve dropped off my riders and their bikes and get into my car. I make it to the freeway and have a tire going down. Forget changing it I’ll just put some air in and keep going. 4 air stops later I get on scene.
My #2 and I didn’t dive but ran the operation from topside. We raised the Honda Accord, which was on it’s roof and occupied, with two 2000# lift bags. It was right next to the dock so when it hit the surface I was able to pull the vehicle in with very little effort until the front wheels hung up on the ramp.
The tow truck pulled it up the ramp far enough so the two divers could stand up to extricate the occupant and get him bagged.
He was mostly intact but in the water a long time. He had been missing for several months and we have searched that area twice. It’s a large very steep area and the vis has been rotten at best. It was even easy to miss when you knew it was there.
My team-mates did a great job dealing with the raising of the vehicle and removing the partially decomposed body. It was tough but not that bad and the two that did the work never missed a lick.
Once the divers were done the fireboat crew foamed them down and prior to leaving the scene we did a debriefing. Everyone seems to be doing well.
At least this case will be closed shortly and the mystery is solved.
I’ll post news articles later when they come out.
This is our fifth recovery between Christmas Day and now.
Here is the sat pic. of the area.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=11&X=2615&Y=26375&W=1
Here is where I was when the call came out. Zoom out to see the whole area.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1290&Y=13138&W=1
And here is where our rigs were.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=11&X=635&Y=6553&W=1
Gary D.
I grab it and take a look and it is a low battery alarm. So I hang it back on my hip. Before I can let go of it the beeping starts again.
It reads; “2335 ENROUTE TO A VEHICLE IN THE WATER AT HIGGINS PT 3:29PM”. As I’m thinking oh holy crapski it goes off again. “RESPOND TO HIGGINS PT VEH IN THE WATER UNK IF OCC GET FURTHER ON SCENE POSSIBLE RECOVERY 3:34PM”. I’m still wondering ***. It goes off again; “PER 2329 DIVE TEAM MEMBERS ENT REDUCE CODE CALL NANCY IN DISPATCH 4:01PM”.
Now normally I would have been out the door and rolling by 3:30 or so but this time I’m going to be a bit slower responding.
I’m in Harrison Idaho at the south end of the lake and the call is at the north end. The problem is my rig and bike trailer is 15.8 miles to the west so 15 of us have a long bike ride back to get loaded and leave.
Everyone else takes off while I get on the phone and try to handle some of this from there. Not only do we have a 16-mile bike ride, but we are 61 miles from my patrol car and another 15 miles to the scene. I’m glad he was dead already.
At 6:00 PM I’ve dropped off my riders and their bikes and get into my car. I make it to the freeway and have a tire going down. Forget changing it I’ll just put some air in and keep going. 4 air stops later I get on scene.
My #2 and I didn’t dive but ran the operation from topside. We raised the Honda Accord, which was on it’s roof and occupied, with two 2000# lift bags. It was right next to the dock so when it hit the surface I was able to pull the vehicle in with very little effort until the front wheels hung up on the ramp.
The tow truck pulled it up the ramp far enough so the two divers could stand up to extricate the occupant and get him bagged.
He was mostly intact but in the water a long time. He had been missing for several months and we have searched that area twice. It’s a large very steep area and the vis has been rotten at best. It was even easy to miss when you knew it was there.
My team-mates did a great job dealing with the raising of the vehicle and removing the partially decomposed body. It was tough but not that bad and the two that did the work never missed a lick.
Once the divers were done the fireboat crew foamed them down and prior to leaving the scene we did a debriefing. Everyone seems to be doing well.
At least this case will be closed shortly and the mystery is solved.
I’ll post news articles later when they come out.
This is our fifth recovery between Christmas Day and now.
Here is the sat pic. of the area.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=11&X=2615&Y=26375&W=1
Here is where I was when the call came out. Zoom out to see the whole area.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1290&Y=13138&W=1
And here is where our rigs were.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=11&X=635&Y=6553&W=1
Gary D.
