During the recent five-year drought — when the San Lorenzo River moved at scarcely a trickle — the Ben Lomond Fire District’s swift water rescue team continued to train, and ready themselves for the inevitable swift water rescue action.
When the torrential rains finally came this winter, propelling the river to spill over its banks and into the neighborhood of Felton Grove, the mostly-volunteer rescue team sprang into action.
“We have a river that at any time can become an issue,” said Chief Stacie Brownlee, a 30-year Ben Lomond firefighting veteran. “It’s harmless until it starts raining.”
Ironically, when the rescue team motored and rowed down the flooded streets in Felton Grove, searching door to door for stranded residents and their pets, it was the first time they’d used the boat with the outboard motor since acquiring it more than 15 years ago.
Without flooding, the swift water team used the bright orange raft as a stable platform to make river rescues. There have been eight such incidents this year.
Of note was the time in February when two Boulder Creek men decided to venture into a rapidly-flowing Boulder Creek in their small wooden boat. They were quickly pulled from shore by Chief Brownlee and her team before being carried into the angry San Lorenzo River a few hundred yards downstream.
The swift water rescue team responded and found only one man in the boat, not the two people who had been reported to be in trouble. They feared the worst and began exploring a tangled web of trees that had fallen across the river.
“Log jams are killer for us. That’s the biggest threat that we have — but that’s where we find bodies,” said engineer and team member Mark Brown, noting that they had entered the danger zone for no reason that day. “We didn’t know (until later) that the other victim went home to change clothes. He put us in jeopardy.”
About 25 local firefighters volunteer in Ben Lomond, and are paid $12 per emergency call (medical, fire and swift water). They receive no benefits or medical insurance, just worker’s compensation. They all live and work other professions nearby the fire station. “It’s a dying breed,” said Brownlee, who recently had eight firefighters go to work for pay at other departments. “We train them and they go elsewhere.”
Brownlee and an administrative assistant are the department’s only paid staff. The Ben Lomond Fire Department is the only swift water rescue team in the San Lorenzo Valley, and takes calls from the mouth of San Lorenzo River up to Boulder Creek. Occasionally they are called to other creeks throughout Santa Cruz County.
During the summer months, volunteer firefighters enroll in department-paid swift water rescue courses in rivers that experience rapid snow melts, such as the Feather River. The San Lorenzo River is not fast enough to train in, except after storms when rescues are made.
The classes are designed to provide students with both theoretical and practical knowledge of swift water rescue.
“They teach you how to survive,” Brownlee said. “Getting in the water is a last resort.”
The swift water rescue team is adept at using ropes and pulleys to rescue victims in the water.
“The classes keep us from becoming victims,” added Brown, a 20-year firefighter veteran.
Brownlee said that her desire is for people to have more respect for the river when it reaches flood proportions. “Most of the rescues we’ve done are unnecessary,” she said. “People ignore warnings.”
