3 Teen-Agers Rescue Boy in Arroyo

In a daring rescue Thursday, three Simi Valley High School students plucked an 11-year-old boy from a rain-swollen flood control channel after the boy attempted to ride the swift-moving waters on his boogie board.

In a separate incident, rescue crews in Port Hueneme feared that a 14-year-old youth had drowned while boogie-boarding in the ocean during Thursday’s storm. But the teen-ager turned up safe on shore after an hourlong search.

Darren Hewlett, who was pulled wet and shivering from the Arroyo Simi channel, was taken to Simi Valley Hospital, where he was treated for scrapes and released, a nursing supervisor said.

His rescuers--Mark Harris, 16; James Doll, 15, and Trey Richardson, 15--said they were watching the fast-moving current on their way home from school when they spotted the boy floundering in the water.

“He said, ‘Help me, I’m going to drown!’ ” Trey recounted.

While he and Mark called police from a nearby motorist’s car phone, James climbed a chain-link fence and lowered his legs toward the water.

“I said, ‘Grab onto my legs,’ ” James recalled.

The boy gripped James’ legs, then he and Trey helped the boy out of the water, the rescuers said.

The teen-agers then took Darren to the nearest house on Aurelia Street and knocked on the door.

“Darren was shivering so bad,” said Paul Patterson, who opened the door. “I got them inside and put a blanket around them and put them in front of the fireplace.”

Police and firefighters arrived minutes later and examined Darren, while Patterson contacted the boy’s mother.

Later, Ventura County Fire Capt. Scott Schuster confronted the three rescuers and told them that he had mixed emotions about the risk they had taken.

“You guys did a hell of a thing,” Schuster said. “But you have to know you took a hell of a chance.”

He said the teen-agers could easily have been swept away themselves.

The rescuers said they were aware that youngsters have drowned in flood control channels elsewhere during heavy rainstorms.

Schuster said Darren apparently took his short Styrofoam board and entered the arroyo near Alscot Avenue about 3 p.m. and tried to ride downstream in water that was two to six feet deep. The boy lost control of the board and was spotted trying to stay afloat by several residents, who called 911.

Firefighters placed rescue crews with ropes at intervals farther downstream and surveyed the area by helicopter before they learned that the boy had been pulled to safety.

Schuster said the incident should serve as a warning to others who are tempted to play in rain-filled channels.

“Stay out of these arroyos--print that in your headlines in big block letters!” he told reporters.

At the other end of the county, Darrell Deeds of Oxnard was reported missing about 1 p.m. after he failed to meet his mother at Port Hueneme Beach Park, police said.

“I asked one of the fishermen on the pier if he had seen anyone, and he said he saw somebody go down, but not come back up,” said Darrell’s mother, Karen Deeds, who wept with relief when reunited with her son.

Deeds said her son frequently goes surfing, but the stormy weather caused her to worry for his safety. He was wearing a wet suit and appeared to be in good condition after being picked up by a Ventura County sheriff’s helicopter on Ormond Beach in Oxnard.

He was driven home in a patrol car, Port Hueneme police said.

The Coast Guard, sheriff’s deputies and Port Hueneme police searched the area around the Port Hueneme Fishing Pier before they found him resting on the beach, police said.

“He told me he saw the helicopters, but he didn’t realize it was for him,” Port Hueneme Police Officer John Brisslinger said.