About FlashAlert on Twitter:
FlashAlert utilizes the free service Twitter to distribute emergency text messages. While you are welcome to register your cell phone text message address directly into the FlashAlert system, we recommend that you simply "follow" the FlashAlert account for Vancouver Fire Dept. by clicking on the link below and logging in to (or creating) your free Twitter account. Twitter sends messages out exceptionally fast thanks to arrangements they have made with the cell phone companies.
Click here to add Vancouver Fire Dept. to your Twitter account or create one.
@VanFirePIO
At approx. 3:45pm today 911 calls began to come in to CRESA about a man that had fallen from the mid span of the I5 bridge into the Columbia River. One of the callers was on the shore near the Red Lion Quay and had eyes on the subject and was providing directions to responding units through the dispatcher. He had reported the male that fallen from the bridge was now holding onto pilings and a log in front of the Red Lion in extremely swift water. Vancouver fire Department arrived with 3 land-based units, and 3 members aboard the fire boat. It took the crew on the fireboat 8 minutes to arrive on the scene. The crew of Fireboat 1 Discovery spotted the male subject weak and falling off the log and made an invasive maneuver to rescue the victim in an area of extremely strong current forcefully pushing the boat from the side. This maneuver required precise operation of the 46’ boat as seen in the attached video. Once the victim was pulled from the river and aboard the fire boat, he was transported to a waiting AMR ambulance and taken to the hospital for his injuries.