SEQUIM — When a teen got stuck on one side of the Dungeness River over the weekend, Clallam County Fire District No. 3 firefighters decided to make a training day out of the incident.
Firefighters responded at about 5 p.m. Saturday after a 14-year-old boy crossed the Dungeness River but couldn’t get back across on his own, said Assistant Chief Dan Orr.
Orr said the boy and some friends had been cooling off in the river about half a mile upstream from the Dungeness Hatchery, 1261 Fish Hatchery Road, near Sequim.
“The young man wasn’t in any distress, it was just getting across safely,” he said. “It would have been a much different deal if he was hurt.”
Because he wasn’t hurt, firefighters turned it into a drill.
They put on dry suits and brought the boy a helmet, a life vest and shoes before floating a raft across the river.
“It was a big production,” he said. “It turned out to be a great training drill for us.”
Firefighters first arrived about 12 minutes after the 5 p.m. call went out.
By 8 p.m. the impromptu training was finished.
He said crews had talked Saturday morning about how a water rescue would be likely with the warm weather.
“It worked out to be a great chance to blow the cobwebs off,” he said. “It’s been a long winter.”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsula dailynews.com.
