By Jerry F. Boone
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)
Copyright 2006 The Oregonian
All Rights Reserved
Hillsboro firefighter Steve Chapman floated on Hagg Lake, his body limp as a fish as it bobbed with the waves.
Paul Harvey eased the Hillsboro Fire Department’s small boat next to Chapman as the rescue crew set to work.
Chapman, they assumed, had fallen from his watercraft and possibly had a spinal injury that made landing him in the boat like a tuna out of the question.
Mark Evans and Neil Dietz jumped into the 40-degree water and slid an orange plastic tray beneath their floating victim and strapped him in, before the team pushed and pulled Chapman on board.
The entire rescue --from the time Chapman hit the water to the time he was back on the boat --took a tad over three minutes, which gave the volunteer plenty of time to jump in the water and be rescued again . . . and again.
Chapman played a drunken boater who had fallen overboard and a swimmer who was unconscious and couldn’t respond to the rescue crew’s questions.
The multiple rescues --Chapman wasn’t the only “victim” to go into the water --were part of a first-ever, multidepartment training exercise Saturday at Hagg Lake.
“We all have different capabilities,” said Lt. Carl Tuma, the water operations coordinator at Hillsboro Fire Department. “This was a chance for us to see what each other has and how we can help one another do a better job.”
Between sessions, firefighters were encouraged to look at the equipment other teams brought to the exercise and to talk about how each agency handles calls.
“Everyone puts their ego aside,” he said. “We all want to learn from one another.”
Each area department has different capabilities. Newberg and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue have dive teams. Gaston has two personal watercraft capable of reaching any point on Hagg Lake within a couple of minutes. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office has a boat and team that are on the water every day the park is open. Hillsboro’s boat is small and fast; Forest Grove’s are capable of working in very shallow water.
“One of the things we want to do is get an idea what each team needs so we can provide it to them when we work together,” Tuma said.
“If we have something like a Hurricane Katrina or the floods of 1996, we want to know how to combine everything available to do the best job possible.”
As Tuma talked about the catalyst for Saturday’s exercise, Don Schmidt, battalion chief for Newberg Fire Department, directed a two-diver team searching for a submerged car.
“Rescue Randy” was trapped inside the derelict Volkswagen.
The hapless Randy may be the most rescued icon in Oregon, having spent his career as a dummy trapped in burning buildings and wrecked cars and now submerged in 8 feet of murky water.
Bubbles boiled to the surface to show the progress of the divers as they moved back and forth in a search pattern between the floating docks.
After about two minutes they used tugs on the rope to signal they had found the car and were working to rescue the patient.
“As long as there is a chance he may be alive, he’s a patient,” said Lawrence Dickenson, Newberg’ s senior diver.
Ten minutes after Randy was pulled to shore, he was hauled underwater, back to the car to be rescued by another dive team.
“This is a great experience for everyone involved,” Schmidt said.
Well, for everyone but Randy. For him, it’s just a job.