PHOTOS: Lebanon Fire District crews were stretched thin Tuesday evening as they handled a string of overlapping calls — including a reported overdue river floater — during an exceptionally busy four-hour period that temporarily committed all available personnel and apparatus.
The stretch began around 4 p.m. when a Lebanon Fire District ambulance transferred a patient from a hospital in Lebanon to one in Corvallis. While that ambulance was out of the district, firefighters responded to an odor investigation on Island Inn Drive and three separate medical emergencies. With all Lebanon ambulances committed, the Albany Fire Department responded under mutual aid and transported one patient to the hospital.
At about 5:45 p.m., crews were dispatched to a first-alarm water assist after a woman floating the South Santiam River on an inner tube was reported significantly overdue for arriving at Gill’s Landing. The call required all available Lebanon Fire District apparatus, career personnel and volunteer firefighters.
Firefighters launched the district’s drone to search the river corridor from the air while another team deployed a rescue raft upstream to search the waterway. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office responded with its rescue watercraft, personnel and drone to assist with the search.
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