Boy Is Swept Away Near Mount Baldy

A Huntington Park boy was believed drowned Sunday after being swept away by the rushing waters of swollen San Antonio Canyon Creek near Mount Baldy, where he was picnicking with his family, authorities said.

Emergency workers had earlier tried and failed to recover a body that appeared to be that of the boy, who is believed to be 12 or 13 years old. Late Sunday, they suspended the search.

At one point, the boy’s parents left the makeshift search headquarters to look for him on their own, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said.

The parents were discovered near the creek a short time later. The names of the boy and his family members were not released.

The boy and his mother, father and two siblings were among the thousands who flocked to snow-capped Mt. Baldy on Sunday to enjoy a sunny, warm January day.

The family’s frantic efforts to save the boy began about 3 p.m., according to people nearby. After the boy fell in, his father tried to save him by jumping into the creek himself, but also was swept away and barely managed to crawl ashore, witnesses said.

Alfredo Nambo of Bell Gardens also went in after the boy.

“I jumped in. I got him by the head and held him, but the stream took over” and the boy was caught in the current, Nambo said. “I couldn’t hold him. The current just took him.”

The boy’s family had driven into the San Bernardino National Forest and taken a detour off Shinn Road to play and picnic by the stream -- usually little more than a trickle but currently raging following weeks of rain and snow, authorities said. The area borders Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, and rescue workers from both counties, as well as the California Highway Patrol, joined in the search.

After the boy was swept away, others in the area ran to nearby Mt. Baldy Road and flagged down CHP Officer Ray Boren, who had been sent to the area to help control traffic.

“The water was just so strong,” Boren said. “It just carried him away.”

Authorities used helicopter sweeps, shining spotlights into the water as they tried to find the boy.

At 5:15 p.m., a cry went up from emergency workers about 100 yards downstream from where the boy had fallen in. They had found a small body, tangled in trees and limbs and still in the water.

Workers used chain saws to try to free the body, but it was pulled yet again toward the center of the rushing stream and quickly vanished. The search then moved to the water rising behind San Antonio Dam, where San Antonio Canyon Creek ends.

“That dam is 80% full,” said Liz Fry, who lives nearby. “It hasn’t been that full for a hundred years. People don’t realize when they get the rain and the snowmelt off the mountain that [the water] is freezing. That’s the coldest, fastest water you’ll ever feel.”

Times staff writer Eric Slater contributed to this report.