FIREFIGHTERS RESCUE FOUR VICTIMS FROM TWO CARS ON FLOODED SW FERNHILL ROAD IN FOREST GROVE
Posted: January 22nd, 2012 1:27 AM
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashalertnewswire.net/images/news/2012-01/1797/51035/DSC_0027.JPG (Rescued motorists get off the boat where they are met by Forest Grove Police Officers and Washington County Deputies)
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashalertnewswire.net/images/news/2012-01/1797/51035/DSC_0026.JPG (Firefighters Keith Baas and Rick Ilg bring the four rescued motorists back to safety )
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashalertnewswire.net/images/news/2012-01/1797/51035/DSC_0014.JPG (Crews deploy the FGF&R Rescue Boat in the distance you can see headlights from the stranded cars)
Around midnight this evening Firefighters from Forest Grove Fire & Rescue received a call for a motor vehicle accident on SW Fernhill Road near the Fernhill Wetlands. When firefighters arrived they met with Forest Grove Police and Washington County Sheriff's Patrol Officers who advised them that there was one driver in a small sedan who had attempted to travel north on Fernhill Road when his engine stalled in the flood waters. Crews could see headlights approximately 600 yards south of the intersection with Taylor Way where barricades were in place at the edge of the dirty brown flooded area. Rescuers quickly dispatched our Rescue Boat to the scene and while it was in the process of being deployed into the water a second vehicle came into the flood waters from the south and it too became stranded near the first. Two Firefighter/Paramedics from Forest Grove Fire & Rescue used our rescue boat to follow the roadway out to the stranded motorists and found their cars stalled i
n approximately 18 - 24 inches of murky flood water. Working from one car to the next, they were able to quickly get all four adults into the boat and bring them to shore safe and unharmed.
SW Fernhill Road has been closed since Friday due to flood waters near the Tualatin River and Fernhill Wetlands. This stretch of SW Fernhill Road floods regularly during high rain events each winter and there are barricades in place at both the north intersection with Taylor Way and the south side where it intersects with SW Geiger Road. As we all heard with the tragedy in Albany this week, it doesn't take much to flood your engine or float your car off the road surface; and this incident in Forest Grove is fortunate to not have ended in tragedy this evening. Please do not move barricades and road closed signs, and even if you do not see a sign never attempt to drive through a flooded roadway, remember to always turn around - don't drown, and choose an alternate route.
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