Firefighters Train for Another Killer: Fast Water

Los Angeles County firefighter Larry Collins remembers the helplessness he felt as he fought the ocean’s waves while trying to rescue a drowning fisherman who had been swept off a reef near Palos Verdes Estates in 1982.

With only a small metal buoy to keep them afloat, the two were pounded by 12-foot swells and slammed against the rocky shoreline before two other firefighters were able to throw the battered men a rope and pull them over the rocks to safety.

Both men recovered from their injuries, and Collins later won a Carnegie Hero Award and a state firefighters’ Medal of Valor for his role in the rescue.

As important as the rescue and accolades was the lesson Collins learned--that firefighters need training to perform water rescues, for their own safety as well as the safety of those in danger of drowning.

“The possibility was there; I could have been knocked unconscious and drowned,” Collins, 24, said Tuesday. “There have been situations where three or four (firefighters) go into the water for a rescue and they’re all in trouble because they don’t know how to get out safely.”

That realization was the catalyst for the department to develop the water rescue safety program that got a tryout Tuesday in a waterway as treacherous as any the firefighters will encounter--the Roaring Rapids ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia.

With the park closed to weekday visitors, a team of about a dozen firefighters--including Collins-- spent five hours in wet suits practicing pulling mock drowning victims (fellow firefighters wearing flotation vests) from the fast-moving current.

Within the next year, department officials hope to equip each of the 129 stations in the county fire system with basic rescue gear, such as flotation devices attached to ropes for victims to grasp and life vests for firefighters, and begin training the county’s 1,800 firefighters to conduct safe water rescues.

Since Collins’ bout with dangerous water led him to explore water rescue techniques, the county Fire Department has spent about $4,000 for training equipment, and a committee of about 10 firefighters has been formed to perfect the techniques and train fellow officers.

Although water rescue training is mandatory for many fire departments in Northern California because of the prevalence of fast-moving rivers, few departments in Southern California, including the City of Los Angeles, offer such first-hand training experience. In fact, most of the teaching duties Tuesday were handled by a professional from Sonoma County who is part of a team that travels throughout the country certifying water rescuers.

Los Angeles County firefighters have received no special training in water safety--until now.

But the popularity of white-water rafting has led to an increase in near-drownings in Southern California rivers, Collins said.

“Each year, we get more and more of these kind of rescues,” he said. “We find more people going down with an inner tube to try to run the San Gabriel River.”

About 175 people drown in Los Angeles County each year, and dozens of those are victims of the ocean or fast-moving water in local rivers, flood channels and canals, fire officials said.

“It’s not just a matter of jumping into water like that and pulling somebody out,” said Fire Capt. Gordon Pearson. “What we’re trying to do is find a precise way to rescue victims who get into rapid waters--and keep ourselves out of trouble as well.”