Firemen Pull Driver From Bay; Revival Attempts Fail

In a daring rescue attempt Tuesday afternoon, firefighters dived into San Diego Bay and retrieved a man whose car had plunged into the murky waters, but they were unable to revive him, authorities said.

Lee W. Speer, 63, a retired schoolteacher from San Diego, was dead at the scene despite several resuscitation attempts. Officials said they did not know how Speer’s car wound up in the bay. The accident occurred about 12:20 p.m.

Firefighters Dave Conde and Rudi Southerland didn’t wait for the Harbor Patrol boat that was en route to rescue the man from the cold bay waters off the 1800 block of North Harbor Drive, said San Diego Fire Dept. Captain Al Macdonald. Instead, they stripped to their jogging shorts and dived in.

Using a special mask made for cave rescues, Capt. Ron Edrozo of the department’s rescue unit joined Conde and Southerland, who had already located the car about 20 feet below the surface.

“They had no weight belts, so they had to fight their bodies’ own buoyancy to stay down,” Macdonald said.

After several dives, the men were able to free Speer from the car and hold him above water until the Harbor Patrol arrived, he said.

Firefighters and lifeguards attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and other revival techniques on Speer, to no avail, Macdonald said. Lifeguards said the water temperature was probably about 61 degrees.

The firefighters were treated for hypothermia at area hospitals and released, he said.