Global's Enviro Crew Assists With Water Rescue


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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