LAFD Helicopter Crew Rescues Woman From Rain-Swollen River [in Atwater Village]
On Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 12:20 AM, three Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, one LAFD Rescue Ambulance, one Urban Search and Rescue Unit, two LAFD Helicopters and two LAFD Swift Water Rescue Teams, a total of 27 personnel under the direction of Battalion Chief Chris Logan, responded to a River Rescue in the Los Angeles River near Sunnynook Drive in Atwater Village.
Firefighters both on the ground and in the air arrived quickly to find a woman stranded on a low island of silt in the middle of the rain-swollen urban flood control channel.
The twenty-one year old woman was spotted and soon contacted by ground-based Firefighters clad in swift-water rescue gear as their LAFD colleagues were strategically positioned downstream for a potential secondary rescue.
Two LAFD helicopters worked in tandem, with one airship establishing aerial reconnaissance and command support, illuminating the scene - including dangerous high-tension electric wires, with a 30-million candlepower 'Night Sun' spotlight, as the other helicopter, configured as an air ambulance, prepared for a delicate hoist rescue under that pilot's guidance.
A Firefighter was lowered to the woman, who remained trapped by the cold, churning and debris-laden water. Following her brief medical assessment and donning of a flotation vest and helmet, she was hoisted with the Firefighter aboard the hovering Fire Department helicopter.
The helicopter flew a short distance to the large parking lot of a shopping center, where it landed to transfer the woman to the care of a ground-based LAFD ambulance crew.
The shivering woman, who was wet and hypothermic but without obvious injury, was wrapped in warm blankets and accepted ambulance transportation to Glendale Memorial Hospital for further evaluation.
No other injuries were reported.
Though the area near the rescue is known to be a popular homeless encampment, the residential status of the woman, as well as her reason for being in the river, was not determined by Fire Department officials.
Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department
link to original post: http://lafd.blogspot.com/2006/12/lafd-helicopter-crew-rescues-woman.html