Water rescues present challenges in Clark County

In May, a group of people in their 20s were enjoying the early summerlike weather by jumping from the Everett Street footbridge between Lacamas and Round lakes.

When one young man started struggling in the water, his friends tried to help him but had to retreat to the shore or risk drowning themselves. The Camas-Washougal Fire Department reached the scene within a few minutes, but the 24-year-old had already slipped beneath the surface of the water. Officials said he never resurfaced.

That tragic incident was a grim beginning for the season when swimmers and boaters flock to Clark County’s lakes and rivers, which are as dangerous as they are beautiful. Only certain first responders have the advanced training needed to navigate the treacherous water conditions found in every corner of the county — and it takes them precious time to reach those in a crisis.

Members of the county’s joint Technical Rescue Team are trained for more specialized emergencies, including water rescues. They come from the Vancouver Fire Department, Clark County Fire District 6 in the Hazel Dell and Salmon Creek areas, Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue in the Ridgefield and La Center areas, and Clark County Fire District 3 in the Battle Ground and Brush Prairie areas.

But the limited number of rescuers can’t be at every popular swimming spot from Pothole Falls in Camas to Frenchman’s Bar Regional Park on Vancouver’s bank of the Columbia River to Moulton Falls near the town of Yacolt.

“Usually, when we have that first weekend that is going to be 90 degrees, 100 degrees, we can almost guarantee that somewhere in the three, four counties we cover, we’re going to go pull someone out of the water, we’re going to be doing a body recovery or we’re going to be doing a search looking for somebody,” said Bill Dunlap, the technical rescue team’s coordinator and a firefighter with Fire District 6.

As temperatures reached 93 degrees around 4 p.m. Monday, rescuers were called to reports of a man who went under the surface at Horseshoe Lake in Woodland. The rescue team worked for hours to find the swimmer. Eventually, the search turned to a recovery effort, and responders found his body about 6:30 p.m., according to a Facebook post from the Woodland Police Department.

Who responds to a water emergency and from where depends on the scenario, Dunlap said. Often, the closest fire department will go to the scene and collect crucial information about where the person was last seen.

“The first crew is trying to bring some order to the chaos,” Vancouver Fire Special Operations Division Chief Tom O’Connor said. “Going out to pull someone in is a dangerous enterprise if you’re not trained for it.”

Swimmers in distress often accidently begin drowning the person trying to help them, O’Connor said. It’s also risky for rescuers to enter the same fast-moving or frigid conditions that overwhelmed the person in the first place.

Although air temperatures rise in summer, area waterways remain very cold, he and other experts said. Even strong swimmers can be overcome by suddenly plunging into frigid water, triggering the person’s reflex to gasp and swallow water or making the person lose muscle control of their limbs.

By the time the rescue team arrived at Lacamas Regional Park that day in May, it was too late for the 24-year-old man.

“There was not a lot for us to do,” Dunlap said. “Our job is to get that person back so families can start grieving. It weighs on us. We want to do our job. We want to be good at our job.”

East county gap

With its abundance of lakes, rivers and well-known swimming holes, east Clark County, in particular, is popular among water lovers.

Fortunately, the number of calls for water rescues in east county hasn’t kept pace with the increased demand, instead hovering around six per year, Camas-Washougal Fire Chief Cliff Free said.

“I expect the number will increase,” he said. “If 200 people using the water generate six calls a year and then you have 600 people using the water? Well, you can imagine.”

Over the past six years, at least four deaths and several near misses have occurred in Camas-Washougal waterbodies.

In May 2019, a 31-year-old Portland man tubing on the Washougal River died after being swept into the cold, swift-moving water.

Three months later, in August 2019, a 14-year-old Vancouver boy drowned in Lacamas Lake after jumping from the Everett Street pedestrian bridge — a popular, unauthorized lake-jumping spot that attracts people of all ages during the summer months.

The following year, in July 2020, three Vancouver teens rescued a father and his 5-year-old daughter from drowning at the Potholes, a beloved but often dangerous Camas swimming area located near Round Lake.

And, last August, a 48-year-old Vancouver woman was killed in a personal watercraft crash on Lacamas Lake.

“Anything with water is intrinsically dangerous, especially when people overestimate their capability,” Free said. “We have many different types of water here and, sometimes, whoever needs to be rescued can be quite remote from us.”

Although at least 12 members of the Camas-Washougal Fire Department are trained in various water-rescue techniques, the east county area has no formal water-rescue team.

“We can throw ropes, extend ladders and find other ways to access people in the water from the shore,” Free said.

The department received a private donation of $33,000 in 2021 to help start a water-rescue program and used the money to purchase two boats — a Zodiac that could be used on Lacamas and Round lakes, as well as a smaller vessel the department uses to shuttle people over a small body of water in more confined water-rescue situations such as at the Potholes.

Though Camas-Washougal firefighters often use the smaller boat, Free said they don’t have the staffing resources needed to deploy the Zodiac. Instead, the larger boat remains in storage.

“Our goal is to ramp up from an operations level to a tech level,” Free said. “We need to start with training. We have a smattering of people who did go through some tech training in 2021, but we need full equipment to outfit them — thermal-wear protection, dry or wet suits, helmets, specialized ropes.”

Plus, state law prohibits most firefighters from entering the water during a rescue, so they must call upon members of the county’s technical rescue team.

“Out of the six or seven calls we get each year, only one or two end up being a tech rescue,” Free said. “The others we either cancel before they get here or they come and integrate with our team.”

Free and his crew of firefighters still believe the area would be better served with its own, dedicated team capable of conducting advanced water rescues.

Aaron Cliburn, the president of the East County Professional Fire Fighters union representing east county firefighters, recently called on the Camas City Council to support the formation of a local water rescue team.

“We have all of the available personnel, so we can respond to these emergencies without relying on our neighboring agencies,” Cliburn said.

‘We have some real risk’

Those agencies are already spread thin. One weekend in June 2024, the rescue team received three separate calls from far-flung corners of the county — the Washougal River, Vancouver Lake and East Fork Lewis River. Rescuers also often respond to the Columbia River.

“We have some real risk in this area,” said O’Connor, the Vancouver special operations chief. “The Columbia River is a dangerous river to swim in. I know people don’t like to hear that.”

The county’s technical rescue team has grown, with Fire District 3 adding three members this year. Dunlap said the county could always use more people with the specialized skill set, but he knows it’s a lot to ask strapped fire departments to commit to.

“It’s expensive for what we get out of it,” Dunlap said. “At District 6, we probably put in $150,000 to $200,000 into this team a year, just in training dollars and equipment and that sort of stuff, but we probably run three technical rescues in our department a year.”

But Dunlap noted having the rescue team members on daily shifts sometimes means they can handle a specialized situation on a call without activating the entire team.

Still, O’Connor praised the preparedness of the joint team, which can also respond to calls for aid in neighboring Cowlitz, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties.

“It’s a real leap to have the program we have,” O’Connor said.

‘Water always wins’

First responders all agree that taking individual precautions is paramount when it comes to water recreation.

“I always say prevention is key,” East County Fire and Rescue Chief Steven Black said. “Wearing a PFD (personal flotation device) and being aware of the area they’re in is important. Are they a strong swimmer? Is there a current? Hopefully, we can prevent these things from happening.”