Special Craft Sought for Channel Rescues

Hoping to increase their rescue capabilities, Los Angeles firefighters will ask the City Council today for permission to use small jet-ski type boats to pluck people from the churning waters of the city’s flood control channels.

Firefighters say the craft would allow rescuers more mobility in swift-flowing channels and are safer than large boats in water that often is filled with debris.

“We don’t (expect) people to see this as being any kind of panacea,” said Assistant City Fire Chief Tony Ennis. “We just see it as adding one more tool to our arsenal to solve this terrible problem.”

An average of six people die each year in the network of flood control channels that crisscross the city. Rescuers often are thwarted by their inability to reach victims as they are swept downstream.

In February, 1992, frantic rescuers chased 15-year-old Adam Bischoff from bridge to bridge as he was carried more than 10 miles down the Los Angeles River between Woodland Hills and Encino.

The boy’s death just a few hundred yards short of a bridge where rescuers hoped to catch him prompted calls to improve swift water rescue procedures. Within months, police cruisers and firetrucks began carrying rescue gear.

Ideas from the public also poured in and earlier this year swift water rescue teams consisting of firefighters and lifeguards was deployed during rainy weather.

If the City Council approves, members of that team would be trained to use the crafts. The six craft--which are similar to jet skis and cost between $6,000 and $11,000 apiece--would be loaned to the city by the manufacturer, Ennis said.

The city would pay for maintenance and some minor modifications as well as purchase three trailers to haul the craft, which carry between two and five people, to rescue sites, Ennis said. One such modification would be the use of a filter to keep debris from clogging the craft’s jets, Ennis said.

Start-up costs for the program would run about $28,000 and come from a storm water pollution abatement fund, said Karen Constine, a deputy to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick. After that, the program would cost between $3,000 and $4,000 annually, Ennis said.

Ennis said other cities--including Albuquerque, N. M.--successfully deploy the craft. And Paul Hounanian, owner of Hyper Water Sports in Northridge, said the craft would be “ideal. They offer a lot more maneuverability and mobility.” Often those are the critical factors in rescue attempts, Ennis said.