White-Water Rescue Training: Firefighters Hit the River
By Tim Omarzu - Monday, April 10, 2000
Search and Rescue instructor Mike Stewart prepares his students for a drill on the Yuba River. The rescue training took place in Washington where, last year, several lives were taken by the cold and swift currents of the Yuba River. (Photo by Wayde Carroll)
Last year, right around Mother's Day, three people drowned in the South Yuba River near Washington.
With that in mind, five Washington volunteer firefighters spent most of Saturday in the river learning the rudiments of swift-water rescue from Mike Stewart, a firefighter for the Nevada County Consolidated Fire District.
"Feet up! Feet up! Good. Swim hard! Get it! Great!" Stewart yelled encouragingly as one wet suit-clad firefighter after another struggled in the river over a training obstacle.
The bright sun warmed the rocky river bank behind the Washington Hotel, but the water was deadly cold - about 46 degrees, Stewart estimated.
One of the sunbathers who died last year on a similarly beautiful day was a fit, young man who had just gotten out of the Marines two weeks earlier.
"Witnesses said, when he hit the water, he locked up. The shock can be enough to stop somebody from moving," Stewart warned.
Hypothermia sets in after three minutes in 46 degree water, Stewart said, but, "most people hit that water and they're not going to be rational from the moment they hit it."
One skill the firefighters practiced was getting over a "strainer," or a submerged branch.
"Of all the obstacles on the river, strainers kill more people than anything else," Stewart told the firefighters.
He had them float down a stretch of river, grasp a branch held in place by two ropes and then struggle over it - or slide under it, if they gave up.
After successfully getting over the branch, and climbing back onto land, a dripping wet fire chief Merv Lee exclaimed, "The minute you hit that thing, it's like Wham!"
"So, you've got an appreciation for water power, now?" Stewart asked the group.
The five firefighters who took the training were Chief Lee, Kelly Moyer-Hylton, Carl Orhum, Doug Cole and John "Space" Voight.
People gathered on the back porch of the Washington Hotel, on and off through the day, to watch.
Kim Lee, the fire chief's wife, watched from the river bank.
"That's ice. That's just liquid snow, there," Kim Lee said of the water. "I don't ever remember, in the 15 years I've been here, a local drowning. We all know better. My kids know better."
Unlike some other Nevada County volunteer firefighters, none of Washington's volunteer firefighters are paid for the calls they answer, including the chief.
They wore a colorful collection of wet suits and dry suits, Saturday, some of them borrowed. (Both wet suits and dry suits are designed to keep swimmers warm but dry suits also keep them dry.) A couple firefighters were shod in high-top canvas sneakers.
Washington's cash-strapped volunteer fire department gets most of its money from an annual August chicken barbecue, which generates about $7,000. It can't afford to buy wet suits, Stewart said.
Doug Cole, the assistant chief, said, "most of what this department has right now has been donated," including its fire engines.
Saturday's training didn't certify the firefighters for swift water rescue, Stewart said. It was more to give them a feel for the river and teach them "how to be safe on the bank."
National Fire Academy statistics show a firefighter is four times more likely to die during a swift-water rescue than inside a burning house, Stewart said.
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