TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — At Danny Lopez Park, the Tucson Fire Department, Northwest Fire District and Golder Ranch Fire District all got together to learn how to rescue someone during a swift water situation.
All the firefighters used paddles to move their boat on the lake in the park, each department working as a team. Every year before monsoon, the three agencies train for rescues.
“It gives us the chance to practice and get our techniques down and how we would actually do things,” swift water rescue trainer Josh Padilla says.
Swift water rescues are a situation they still find themselves responding to every year despite various warnings to the public.
“If you see rushing water, don’t try to go through it,” Padilla says.
Padilla is a paramedic at the Tucson Fire Department’s Station 4 and a swift water rescue trainer. In real-life situations, he’s done ladder rescues.
“Just like any other call you just have to make sure that you’re staying calm,” he says.
He says there are different aspects of rescues and an order of operations.
“We would first hopefully try to either talk to the person and if they could get themselves out,” he says. “Then it would be us reaching or throwing ropes.”
Then, he says they move on to more complex situations like shooting and pulling lines across a big body of rushing water, including rivers.
“Enter the water and actually swim to a victim,” Padilla says about a worst case scenario.
TFD officials say they responded to 15 swift water rescue incidents in 2023 and 33 in 2024. In the past five years they’ve responded to 130 situations.
In the past five years, the Northwest Fire District says they’ve responded to 37 situations, mostly during July and August.
“A lot of hazards that we can’t control including the water and the speed and the amount of rain,” Colt Jackson says about a real-life situation.
Colt Jackson is Northwest Fire District’s captain at Station 38, and he’s also a swift water rescue trainer.
“It’s not just swift water. Normally it’s lines down, trees down, car accidents, and then we still have the regular calls going on too,” Jackson says.
Teamwork is an important aspect of their training and real-life situations, which he says is why communication with other departments is key.
“That’s why we do this every year. We all get together. That way we all know each other’s faces, our communication,” Jackson says.
Dominic Rhodes is a paramedic at the Golder Ranch Fire District. He’s also a swift water rescue trainer.
“It just really comes down to communication with each other. Making sure you have all the safety standpoints in place before we’re actually conducting a rescue,” Rhodes says.
When rescuing someone while there is rushing water, he says they have different types of formations.
“If we’re gonna walk out, we have a line of stern which we all walk in a single file line. Or if we do what’s called a Flying V, we kind of all anchor in a V formation,” he says.
Rhodes says they have new equipment, new boats and different line guns to help shoot lines across the river.
“So it’s new best practices of doing things,” he says about the differences between their trainings in years past and now.
The fire departments also train at the Salt River in the Phoenix area. All of the trainings take teamwork and learning from each other.
“We all have the same goal in mind. It’s to protect the public and help those in need and we’re going to work together however we can to get that mission accomplished,” Rhodes says.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
