Daring rescue saves lives of four hikers
It was a great example of first responders at their best. Without regard for the extreme danger they faced, dozens of personnel from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Malibu Search and Rescue, L.A. County Fire Department Lifeguards Swift Water Rescue, the state park and the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station participated in a treacherous overnight rescue of four hikers.
The young men were all around 25-years-old. They got trapped in an area littered with huge boulders and a small lake that flows between the rocks. Several of the rescuers reported that the usually calm lake had become a torrential river complete with rapids running through the boulders.
The conditions were so bad that the chances were high that the hikers and everyone on the rescue team could have died.
Capt. David Katz of the Sheriff’s Malibu Search and Rescue Team said, “I’ve been doing search and rescue for 24 years; I’ve never seen conditions like this.”
Katz was the first person to attempt to cross the lake in a rescue boat. His plan to trek into the area and find the stranded hikers failed when torrents of water forced him to retreat. He rowed back to get help. Once he had a second person in the boat, together they rowed through the gushing water.
This time they succeeded and six other rescuers soon joined them with their heavy equipment. Many of them tried to hike as far as they could and they were able to see the hikers’ flashlight at a distance of about 200 yards. However, they were forced to turn back when they were faced with treacherous waters.
“If we would have tried to enter the rapids, we surely would have been pulled downstream and died,” Katz said. “I’m not making this up. It was the worst conditions I’ve ever seen.”