On Monday, May 8, 2006 at 6:06 p.m., six companies of Los Angeles firefighters, two LAFD rescue ambulances, two LAFD helicopters and one battalion chief officer command team under the direction of Battalion Chief Jack Wise responded to a Swift Water Rescue near 11000 North Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the northeast San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima.
Despite warm weather and a lack of appreciable rain for weeks, several local flood control channels remained swollen with retained water runoff.
In response to a 9-1-1 call reporting a teenage male in distress within the Pacoima Wash, 40 LAFD personnel on the ground and in the air responded quickly to strategic positions along the concrete lined tributary, which had nearly three feet of cold water traveling at a brisk 15 miles-per-hour.
As firefighters deployed to pre-planned rescue points, it was soon determined that the young man was in a fixed but precarious position, clinging to the base of a 24 foot vertical channel wall adjacent to Laurel Canyon Boulevard.
Aware that the victim was a short distance from the churning waters of a dangerous dam, LAFD personnel from Fire Station 98 shouted words of encouragement while throwing a tethered flotation device to the youth, who had articles of clothing ripped from his body by the force of the water during his more than three-mile downstream journey.
A member of Fire Station 98’s crew, already clad in swift water rescue gear, placed himself into a rescue harness as an LAFD aerial ladder was extended over the channel. Secured by ropes and suspended from the ladder being used in a “crane-like” fashion, the firefighter was carefully lowered into the rushing water in front of the boy, and while shielding him from the elements, secured the 15-year-old Sylmar resident to his harness.
Then, with both gentleness and precision, the two were raised to the dry and warm street level above - and the arms of waiting LAFD paramedics.
The entire operation, from receipt of the first 9-1-1 call to the boy’s release from the harness at ground level, took less than 22 minutes. There were no other victims and no firefighter injuries were reported.
The mildly hypothermic boy, who also suffered numerous lacerations and abrasions, was quickly wrapped in warm blankets and taken to an awaiting ambulance, where his cold, damp clothes were removed and his wounds cleaned and dressed. Warming measures were instituted during his transport to nearby Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.
Paramedics, who declared the boy to be in good condition, described him as polite, contrite and genuinely thankful for their efforts.
The teenager verbalized that he and a male friend had been riding their bicycles near El Cariso Park. According to his statements, each boy fell in the water, but his friend had amazingly been able to scramble free.