The Associated Press

WELLINGTON, Ohio — A firefighter who drowned in a swollen river while trying to reach two stranded teenagers should not have attempted the rescue without a boat, a state investigator determined.

Instead of allowing Al "Buz" Anderson Jr. to enter the water connected to a safety line, rescuers should have used an inflatable boat to try to reach the teenagers who were clinging to trees, said James Gorman, an investigator for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Anderson, 47, a volunteer firefighter and a certified swift-water rescuer, was overcome by the current of the Black River. A park ranger in a boat saved the teens, who were stranded last June after abandoning their sport utility vehicle on a flooded road.

Gorman's report said the department did not have plans for a water rescue in that area of Wellington Township, about 40 miles southwest of Cleveland. Initial rescuers were overconfident in their abilities to handle the current and should not have gone into the water without backup, the report said.

Firefighters were hampered by their inflatable raft's lack of a motor, but they could have tethered the boat while it was in the water, the report said.

"I don't know why the boat rescue wasn't tried first," Gorman wrote in the report, which said rescuers should have entered the water without a boat only as a last resort.

The motor on the department's boat was damaged shortly before the river flooded, Wellington fire Chief Bob Walker said.

"It's not an excuse, but a fact," he said. "We have learned from this tragedy."

Walker asked the state to investigate the rescue attempt. The department will use the report to improve procedures, including training more firefighters in swift-water rescues and signing a mutual-aid agreement with the city of Elyria for water rescues, he said.