Without checking my journal, I would say about 15 years ago, when it had been raining torrentially for about 4-5 hours, that I received a radio call that a driver called in stating that he witnessed a car being swept away while the driver of the vehicle tried to cross a flooded small bridge in a small country town.
Upon my arrival at the scene, I immediately shown my spotlight up and down the area of the stream that was flooded at the bridge. Initially, I saw nothing, but then my light beamed off of a piece of chrome on a car that had been turned on it’s side. As bad as I wanted to, I had no way to get to the car. The car was approximately 30 yards away from me.
I called my Dispatcher and her respond 2 fire companies immediately to my location. My thinking at the time was that maybe together, we could figure a way to get to the car. The car, BTW, was a small SUV.
When the first truck arrived, we decided to lay down a hose line and I would walk or swim to the car while holding onto the hose. This was going to take a miracle to work, but we didn’t have a lot of time to think and this was the best plan at the time. I took off my service belt, shirt, pants and grabbed the hose and began wading down the fast moving stream.
When I reached the car, I looked inside with my flashlight and saw a female in front with another child strapped in a child’s safety seat. I finally got the door opened and checked for vitals, but both were deceased. Another horror was that this happened on Mother’s Day. On the way back to the truck, I slipped and broke my ankle and I needed rescued.
Another horrible tragedy that I have had to relive. When I get back on my home computer, I will search the local newspaper archives for the story. Hopefully, it will still be available. If I find it, I will post it. I feel certain that it will be.
