Brian Stone and his 11-year-old daughter Hudsen weren’t planning on saving anyone when they took their boat on the Willamette River near Salem’s Wallace Marine Park for a fishing trip last Thursday.
But then, around 3 p.m., the Salem man spotted three people struggling to stay afloat as they clung to a flipped, nearly submerged canoe.
“I was like, ‘OK, hold on, kiddo,’” the 50-year-old photographer recalled telling his daughter. “We gotta go help these guys.”
Stone said the river’s currents were strong as they executed the unexpected rescue by pulling each of the stranded paddlers, who Stone estimated to be in their 50s or 60s, into the back of his boat.
Only two of them had lifejackets, he said.
Soaking wet and shaken from their ordeal, the paddlers thanked Stone and his daughter for the rescue, he said. One of them even said that she was so exhausted that she considered letting go.
“She saw her parents” who had passed away, Stone recalled the woman saying, “and they told her to keep going.”
Stone said neither he nor his daughter got the paddlers’ names but that they seemed fine, albeit rattled, as he drove them back to the boat ramp.
As chance would have it, the Salem Fire Department’s water rescue team had just pulled up to the ramp to practice rescue techniques.
Fire Capt. Andrew Grimmer said his team hadn’t received a call about the accident before Stone — who Grimmer had gone to high school with — jumped into action and rescued the stranded canoers.
Grimmer, who has been on the water safety team for 15 years, said the incident underscores the importance of water safety on the river.
“That’s a pretty common thing that happens with inexperienced folks who don’t realize that the currents are pretty strong,” he said. He added that boaters can stay safe by checking about boating hazards in advance with people who have been there before, wearing life jackets and carrying a whistle to call for help.
Stone, who has been boating since he was 17, recommended that motorboaters carry a rope ladder onboard to help get people out of the water. He also said the incident reinforced the uncertainty of life — and the importance of helping people out — to his daughter.
“It was quite a situation for my daughter, who’s 11, to experience and know that life is short,” he said. “That you gotta be real careful out there. You got to be able to help others when they need it.”
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