On the afternoon of May 17 at about 1:15 Portland Fire & Rescue along with Multnomah County River Patrol and the United States Coast Guard Station Portland all responded to a water rescue near Cathedral Park boat ramp in North Portland. The initial call came in as a small unoccupied boat running circles in the river with a person in the water yelling for help.
On water rescue calls BOEC will dispatch both water resources, often from multiple agencies, as well as land-based companies who often arrive to a scene first and are able to confirm and update the call information as well as provide invaluable information on exact location as well as the resources needed for the emergency situation at hand. While enroute to the call there was confirmation that both MCSO River Patrol and a boat from USCG Station Portland were also underway to assist Portland Fireboat 6 with this call.
Engine 22 from the nearby St. John’s Fire Station did arrive first and were able to confirm that there was a small unoccupied boat spinning circles just upriver from the St. John’s Bridge and there was a person in the water near the boat. Fortunately, at about the same time as their arrival they reported that a Good Samaritan boater was rescuing the person in the water. The rescued boater was brought to the dock at Cathedral Park boat ramp and reported to E22 that there was a full tank of fuel on the runaway vessel so it would be out there for quite some time unless responders were able to take control of the vessel and shut down the engine.
As is often the case when first responders arrive to a call there is no exact playbook for how to deal with the situation found and this was certainly the case here. Fireboat 6 and MCSO River Patrol decided they would attempt to “lasso” the boat around the motor in an attempt to take control of the vessel and then pull it along-side, shut down the engine and tow it to the dock. After several attempts from both agencies Portland Fire was finally successful. After shutting down the engine the vessel was transferred to the USCG small boat and towed to the dock and reunited with the owner.
This was a 16’ vessel that had a tiller driven outboard motor. The tiller provides both the throttle and the steerage for the vessel and the boater reported that he slipped while operating the tiller which caused both rapid acceleration and a sharp turn at the same time throwing him off balance and out of the boat.
