The nature of the work performed at SCAA member company Global often requires personnel to be prepared
for just about everything, so Global's crews train for water rescues, first aid and
CPR. The training certainly paid off the morning of August 13th when
two of their Environmental Technicians, Carl Anderson and Caleb Faires, helped rescue
two workers that had fallen into the Duwamish River off of Harbor Island at the
Port of Seattle.
Anderson and Faires were in a small landing craft hauling
floating boom for a fuel transfer at Terminal 18 when they heard and saw
several people across the channel at Terminal 30 hailing them. The Global crew
stopped their booming and headed across the river. As they got closer saw one
man in the water with a lifering, holding an unconscious man. The victim had apparently
fallen from one of the large container ships;the second man was an operations
manager at T-18 who jumped in to help the victim. The water in the channel
remains near 55 degrees, even in summer, and the rescuer was in danger of
succumbing to exhaustion and hypothermia.
The Global team lowered the ramp at the front of the landing
craft and pulled the two men into the boat. They rolled the unconscious man
onto his side to help remove water from the victim’s lungs; the victim’s vitals
were faint but he was breathing and had a pulse. A crane operator at T-18was
able to lower a man basket next to the boat and a Seattle Fire crew helped get
the men from the boat into the basket. The operations manager was treated at
the scene; the unconscious man was transported to Harborview Medical Centerin
critical condition.
Anderson and Faires said they were simply in the right place
at the right time, and were glad they could help with the rescue. “I’m so glad
we’ve had the CPR class; you never know when something like this could happen.
We knew what to do and we helped the victim out until the firefighters could
get there,” said Anderson.
In a press release, the Seattle Fire Department thanked all
those involved in the rescue effort. “The Seattle Fire Department extends our
appreciation to the man who jumped in to save the patient, and to the private
boat owners for stopping to help. If it weren’t for their coordinated
life-saving efforts, the outcome may have been different.”
Photo courtesy of
Seattle Fire Department:
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