LOS ANGELES, CA – Firefighters rescued two homeless people who were trapped inside a sewer tunnel by rising flood water Sunday in San Bernardino, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District.
The district responded at 8:40 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, to the 6900 block of Fairfax Drive. Crews found two people inside a sewer tunnel that emptied into a main flood-control channel, where flood water was surging.
Both people were uninjured, and both declined to be taken to a hospital.
Helicopter extraction ruled out
Rescuers considered a helicopter extraction while they set up, but they quickly ruled it out. Power lines cross the channel at narrow intervals, which made an aerial approach unworkable.
Crews instead used a ladder truck to reach the tunnel. Swift-water personnel then accessed the two people and removed them one at a time.
According to initial reports, the operation took nearly two hours from start to finish.
Both return to camp outside the channel
After they were brought out of the channel, the two people returned to a camp located outside the flood-control channel. Neither required medical treatment.
One of the people told rescuers he had sheltered from earlier storms in the same spot and had not expected the water to rise as high this time.
Warnings flown over the channels
In the days before the storm, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department aviation units flew over flood-control channels and riverbeds, announcing that a storm was approaching and urging people to move to high ground.
The person who spoke with rescuers said he had heard those announcements. He said he decided to stay because the location had been safe during previous storms.
Second swift-water rescue the same morning
The Fairfax Drive call was one of two swift-water rescues San Bernardino County Fire crews carried out Sunday. At 11:58 a.m., firefighters were sent to the Santa Ana River near E Street, where two homeless women and their four dogs were stranded on an island.
The river had risen and cut their camp off from the riverbank. Firefighters used an inflatable raft to reach the island, gave the women life jackets and ferried them to shore. The small dogs were placed in a mesh bag for the trip.
That group was also rescued without injury, according to the firefighters.
Flood advisories across the county
The rescues came as the National Weather Service issued multiple flood advisories for San Bernardino County on Oct. 11. A flood watch, a high wind warning and wind advisories were also in effect that day.
Flood-control channels and riverbeds are built to carry runoff away from developed areas, and they can fill quickly when heavy rain falls upstream. The fire district did not describe how high the water in the Fairfax Drive channel rose or how it entered the sewer tunnel.
No injuries reported in either rescue
No injuries were reported in either Sunday rescue, and the people rescued from the tunnel and from the river island were not taken to a hospital. The fire district had not released the names or ages of the people rescued.
