‘A career call’: Folsom firefighter recounts lifesaving measures taken to rescue teen from Cosumnes River

By Lee Anne Denyer

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    FOLSOM, California (KCRA) — Firefighter Nicholas Boule knows a shift can change in an instant. And earlier this week it did, he recalled Saturday from the Folsom Fire Department.

“This is a career call,” Boule said. “You don’t know when the tones are going to go off and what you’re going to get called for.”

LiveCopter 3 was overhead with exclusive images as Boule and his team rushed to help a teenager Monday, stuck and clinging to a submerged tree in the cold and fast-moving water of the Cosumnes River.

Boule and his team had only just returned to Folsom Fire Station 35 after working a grassfire call when they received word of a water rescue in Rancho Murietta.

During the roughly 20-minute drive over, he said, they researched conditions and strategized on how to best reach the stranded individual, knowing how quickly they’d need to react once they arrived.

“We call it a high-risk, low-frequency call where we have a very short period of time to possibly save someone’s life,” he said.

They knew there wasn’t time for a helicopter to arrive or the ability to launch their boat at this location; They’d have to get in the water.

“From the shore, it was 100 yards upstream. I swam out into the current and let the current carry me into him,” he said. “We talked to him on shore before we got to him, told him to hang onto the rope, everything is going to be all right, were going to get to you.”

Troy Luna Jr., 18, told KCRA 3 he and three friends had been rafting Monday afternoon when the current suddenly pulled him downstream. He was not wearing a life jacket, which he said was a mistake.

“I could have died,” Luna said to KCRA 3 reporter Orko Manna.

Captain Brian Beck was in the water, too. He praised Boule and the rest of the Folsom Fire and Sacramento Metro Fire Crews who aided in the rescue.

“It happened fast but I think it went well,” Beck said.

Beck said while he has the utmost confidence in his crew and in the tools they have available to them to respond to these types of calls, he knows this summer is going to be challenging.

“The water levels are all much higher than normal and it’s extremely cold and it’s flowing extremely fast,” he said. “People who are in the water, who aren’t used to that temperature, they’re going to get cold and tired quick and their body is going to give out on them sooner than it normally would.”

Beck stressed people going into the water to be aware of their surroundings, to be mindful of mixing alcohol with on-the-water activities, to wear a life jacket and to only go into areas they are comfortable getting out of on their own.

Beck said he was proud of Boule and his actions Monday.

“This is what you train to do,” Boule said.

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