Rushing River Is Attractive and Deadly : Safety: Firefighters demonstrate perils of entering fast-moving waters of flood channel--accidentally or on purpose.

Most people were rejoicing Tuesday in the sunny break from almost two weeks of heavy rain, but not Thomas W. Skelly, battalion chief in the Santa Ana Fire Department.

He worried that the clear weather would pose a new peril along the swift-moving Santa Ana River.

“Very few people go near the river in the rain,” he said Tuesday. “Our problem is that tomorrow, maybe today, the sun will shine. If that happens, that river will draw people to its edge, and someone may fall in.”

Over the years, several people--including children--have died by rafting, swimming or toppling into the river.

To illustrate the latest danger and to discourage people from getting close to the rain-gorged river, the Fire Department staged a demonstration by dropping a rubber raft and a 100-pound dummy made of old fire hose segments into the rushing waters.

As fire officials prepared to lower the raft Tuesday, children and families were already out walking along the river banks near the River View Golf Course in Santa Ana. With water the color of coffee and cream, the river surged with storm runoff as the firefighters lowered the raft from the bridge at Memory Lane. The raft floated through the bridge supports but ended up stuck and violently churning in the water.

“If it had been real people, they would have been sitting up and trying to balance the raft, then they would have tipped over into the water,” said fire Capt. Robert Soria. Once stuck in a watery groove called a low head dam, a person would be constantly pushed under by the turbulent motion of the water, he said.

“It’s like a washing machine,” he said. “It’s just rocks there. It’ll grind you up.”

He said that even though the raft didn’t tip over, the person would still be stuck and wondering how to get out.

“We want to keep people out of here,” Soria said. “People don’t realize how easy it is to fall into the water.” He said slime, sand and debris along riverbanks can easily cause people to fall in.

After the demonstration, a police officer fired a bullet into the raft to deflate it. The dummy also suffered a cruel fate. It churned in the water for a while, then finally stayed under, as fire officials predicted.