Ben Lomond Fire Chief Stacie Brownlee and firefighters Mark Brown and Matt Sanders risked their lives Jan.10 to rescue a middle-aged man from the fast-moving floodwaters of Boulder Creek, just a few hundred yards from the deadly, rain-swollen San Lorenzo River.
The man, suffering from hypothermia, was examined by Boulder Creek paramedics and released. He was not identified.
Boulder Creek Fire Chief Kevin McClish said Brownlee, Brown and Sanders are members of Ben Lomond’s crack Swift Water Rescue Team. They were called to assist their northern neighbor when the first report came in that two people had fallen out of a capsized boat about a half mile from the southern end of Boulder Creek.
The creek drains the Big Basin watershed, which follows China Grade then Big Basin Way (CA 236) before entering the San Lorenzo River near the Boulder Creek fire station.
Heavy rains had filled the creek bed, carrying silt, logs and debris in a roiling, churning descent to the river.
McClish said he didn’t know where the two people, a man and a woman, had entered the creek in an inflatable boat, but said it capsized about 4 p.m., dumping its occupants, and got hung up on debris near the 13000 block of West Park Avenue.
Dispatchers were told by a resident of West Park Avenue that they heard a man yelling for help trapped “in a pile of debris in the middle of the creek.” The caller said that a woman had gotten out of the boat and the water on her own
When Boulder Creek firefighters located the man, the air and water temperatures were in the mid-50s. McClish said the struggling man was wearing wading boots that had filled with water, as late afternoon skies darkened the mountain valley.
“I want to give kudos and thanks to Ben Lomond Fire and their water rescue team,” he said. “They risked their lives and saved a man’s life.”
McClish said the rescue team members were wearing protective gear when they crawled down a 30-foot embankment – secured by ropes held by Boulder Creek firefighters – made their way through the fast-moving current and on to the overturned boat to rescue the man, whose ashen complexion was already showing signs of hypothermia.
A State Parks rescue swimmer was stationed downstream, just in case the team lost its grip on the man in the water, to prevent him from being swept to his death in the river.
Brownlee, a mother of two, 1984 San Lorenzo High alum and a 26-year veteran firefighter, requested not to be interviewed or photographed, preferring to let one of her officers report on the incident.
