We are off for a possible suicide below the dam. One of those non code ones. More later.
Gary D.
Gary D.
Call out
- Thread starter Gary D.
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CheddarChick
Contributor
Be careful.....
OP
If they were all easy it wouldn’t be such a challenge.
Today I get into car and start for the office. I haven’t called dispatch yet because they are just a bit busy and I can check into service later.
I’m about to get onto the freeway 2 miles from my house when I hear a call come in that nobody responds to. So I get on the air and say with Watch Commanders approval I’ll be in route. The Watch Commander comes on the air and says: “Negative, Be in route to Avista Park for a dive, code 2”. Time is 1418 hours. Man, I don’t officially start until 1500.
Before he said code 2 I had already lit up and flipped a U-turn to get headed the right direction. Not bad in light traffic but I did it in one of the busiest intersections in the county.
About 3 minutes later I’m on scene seeing the evidence and getting briefed. It doesn’t look good and the river is running at 5000+cfs at that point and I’m guessing 6-8 knots.
At 1510 dispatch put out a team page. Two FNG’s, Lane B, Gary M. (our token fireman), one seasoned without his gear respond along with 4 Marine Deputies and two jet boats.
Once we are ready to get wet we had Avista shut down the dam. Now the boats are trapped in the pool we need to search but there is no other safe way to do it. One of the boats wasn’t paying a lot of attention to where he was moored and ended up nice and level with 4” of air under his keel.
We had an FNG and Gary M. do the first search patterns. They did semi circle patterns with a big overlap. One of the other FNG’s was a 90% and I was the safety diver staying with Gary Ms, crew. He did well saying down 40 minutes, taking a 5-minute breather, changing tanks and going back for another spell.
Max depth was in the 35’ range with a plethora of debris on the bottom. Logs, lumber, metal sticking out of the bottom, a Jeep, bicycles, motorcycles and the very hazardous cell phones. Last time we dove here we brought out an AK-47.
Water temp was 50df, vis from 3-6’. Once we were sure she wasn’t in our initial search area we let Avista reopen the dam so the boats could head back down stream and we wouldn’t P.O. the spawning trout anymore than we already have.
We will get another game plan set up later and I’ll let you know more when we get it.
Here is the sat pic of the area. It's been two years sense the last recovery from there. http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1258&Y=13209&W=1
We are/were searching from the bridge north.
Gary D.
Today I get into car and start for the office. I haven’t called dispatch yet because they are just a bit busy and I can check into service later.
I’m about to get onto the freeway 2 miles from my house when I hear a call come in that nobody responds to. So I get on the air and say with Watch Commanders approval I’ll be in route. The Watch Commander comes on the air and says: “Negative, Be in route to Avista Park for a dive, code 2”. Time is 1418 hours. Man, I don’t officially start until 1500.
Before he said code 2 I had already lit up and flipped a U-turn to get headed the right direction. Not bad in light traffic but I did it in one of the busiest intersections in the county.
About 3 minutes later I’m on scene seeing the evidence and getting briefed. It doesn’t look good and the river is running at 5000+cfs at that point and I’m guessing 6-8 knots.
At 1510 dispatch put out a team page. Two FNG’s, Lane B, Gary M. (our token fireman), one seasoned without his gear respond along with 4 Marine Deputies and two jet boats.
Once we are ready to get wet we had Avista shut down the dam. Now the boats are trapped in the pool we need to search but there is no other safe way to do it. One of the boats wasn’t paying a lot of attention to where he was moored and ended up nice and level with 4” of air under his keel.
We had an FNG and Gary M. do the first search patterns. They did semi circle patterns with a big overlap. One of the other FNG’s was a 90% and I was the safety diver staying with Gary Ms, crew. He did well saying down 40 minutes, taking a 5-minute breather, changing tanks and going back for another spell.
Max depth was in the 35’ range with a plethora of debris on the bottom. Logs, lumber, metal sticking out of the bottom, a Jeep, bicycles, motorcycles and the very hazardous cell phones. Last time we dove here we brought out an AK-47.
Water temp was 50df, vis from 3-6’. Once we were sure she wasn’t in our initial search area we let Avista reopen the dam so the boats could head back down stream and we wouldn’t P.O. the spawning trout anymore than we already have.
We will get another game plan set up later and I’ll let you know more when we get it.
Here is the sat pic of the area. It's been two years sense the last recovery from there. http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1258&Y=13209&W=1
We are/were searching from the bridge north.
Gary D.
Be safe
OP
Had the reporter walked 50 yards to his right he could have gotten accurate pics of the area. Not a totally accurate report but it will give you an idea of what is happening.
CH 6 News;
http://www.khq.com/global/video/pop...&hostPageUrl=http://www.khq.com/&rnd=61399259
CH 4 News;
http://www.spokanetogo.com/news-video/?id=5922
Krem 2 News;
Can't get it to down load yet
Gary D.
CH 6 News;
http://www.khq.com/global/video/pop...&hostPageUrl=http://www.khq.com/&rnd=61399259
CH 4 News;
http://www.spokanetogo.com/news-video/?id=5922
Krem 2 News;
Can't get it to down load yet
Gary D.
DennisW
Contributor
Both of them played for me. Be careful up there Gary.
OP
Another page. "DIVE RECOVERY 051007 PF DAM 1000 2321 (pack H2O) 4:30 PM 050907".
It will be a repeat of yesterday.
Gary D.
It will be a repeat of yesterday.
Gary D.
Yotsie
Contributor
Be safe!!!!
OP
Got her, details later.
Gary D.
Gary D.
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