One of the first water rescues fire Capts. Paul Autry and Zack Gardner did after becoming state certified was among the most difficult. A man had fallen from his raft in rapids on the Stanislaus River; the water flowing at 10 mph was like 400 pounds of pressure pinning his foot under a log at the river bottom.
“He was crying and scared; he told us that he had come to the conclusion that he was going to die that night,” Autry said. “He kept telling us, ‘You are not going to get me, I’m going to die.’ ”
Gardner kept the boat in place by matching its speed to the flows while Autry got in the water and freed the man’s leg.
Their dedication is unwavering in every rescue, but the man’s doubt in them only strengthened their resolve.
It was the same desire to prove the doubters wrong that motivated the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District captains to start the county’s first swift-water rescue team in 2009. It motivated them to become certified to train their colleagues and expand the team to 40 members and most recently to get approval from the state’s Office of Emergency Services to be sent to any water disaster in the country to aid with search and rescues.
“Zack and I both have the same personality, if you tell us we can’t, then we are going to prove you wrong no matter what it takes,” Autry said. “There was a lot of people out there who were skeptical, a lot of people who said ‘You’re wasting your time, it’s not going to happen in this county.’ ”
People doubted they could do it because others had failed in the past.
In addition to their hard work, Autry and Gardner had the advantage of starting the team at a time when the need for certified water rescuers was increasing with the number of calls they were getting.
In 2009, Stanislaus Consolidated responded to an average of 25 water rescues a year, Autry said. They now average 75 calls a year. In 2011, they responded to 130 calls. It was the only time someone died on the river since they started the team and it was on a day in which there were three back-to-back rescues.
In May, Autry and Gardner passed an evaluation by Cal OES that was a culmination of two years of training as well as building a trailer to store all of the equipment required by the state and for a six-member team to sleep in.
Quarters will be a little tight when all six cots are in use in the 24-by-8 foot trailer, but it has heating, air conditioning and running water. It beats sleeping in the dirt on the side of the road, which often is the case in wildland fires to which they are deployed by OES, Gardner said.
“We have enough food and water in the trailer to sustain ourselves for three days,” he said. “Chief could call and say go to West Virginia and we could go right now.”
Cal OES used a grant to to fund its initial 13 swift/flood water teams, providing them with the trailers and equipment necessary. Since then, fire departments that want to join the California Fire and Rescue Emergency Mutual Aid System must build their own teams and supply their own equipment.
Gardner and Autry worked on their days off welding shelves and other facets of the trailer. They created a two-year budget to get all the equipment, which cost about $30,000.
They have underwater cameras so clear “you could see the eyelashes on the person” in the water. They have a “complex rope system” they can use in a variety of situations, such as rappelling into a canyon or zip lining across.
Firefighters can throw ropes with floatation devices on the end to victims trapped in dangerous waters, but if they are too far, the team also has a device called a line gun that can shoot a rope up to 500 feet.
And they have a 16-foot inflatable rescue boat capable of traveling through a foot of water. It fits inside the trailer.
About half of the members of Stanislaus Consolidated’s 40-member swift-water rescue team have passed the OES courses needed for deployment, Autry said.
They swam in and performed rescues in class III rapids and rafted in class V rapids. They rappelled from helicopters 500 feet in the air and learned how to rescue large animals by securing ropes around horses to pull them from mud or freeing cattle from an overturned trailer.
Autry and Gardner even required their team members to train beyond what is required by the state.
Members must be able to swim 500 meters, retrieve 20 pounds from 12 foot depths and tread water for 12 minutes, using only their legs for the last two.
Recently Stanislaus Consolidated started cross training with the Sheriff’s Department. Firefighters are learning to do long-line rescues from the sheriff’s helicopter and deputies are learning to do swift-water surface rescues.
Autry and Gardner are ready to put their new skills and the skills of their team members to use when they are called upon.
Reaching this achievement, Autry said “is like winning the World Series.”
He said they will keep striving to do more. They hope someday to elevate their Type 2 Swift Water/Flood Search & Rescue status to a Type 1 by adding more equipment and getting more specialized training.
They also want to organize a water-safety course for members of the public who enjoy recreation on the river.
“I probably won’t walk away from the program until I can’t swim anymore,” Autry said.
Erin Tracy: 209-578-2366, @ModestoBeeCrime
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