Rescuers avert drowning

By Sanne Godfrey

The Gresham Outlook, Jul 23, 2010, Updated Jul 23, 2010 (1 Reader comment)

Greg Muhr / contributed photo

Workers help a woman out of the river after ferrying her from the opposite bank.

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The ties that bound a Portland man to his inner tubes nearly led to his drowning on the Sandy River earlier this month.

Gresham Fire & Emergency Services’ water rescue team responded to a call around 8 p.m. Saturday, July 10, about a 25-year-old man who got stuck in the Sandy River.

Kenneth Eslinger tied two inner tubes together with a rope and then tied this rope to his wrist while attempting to float down the river from Dodge Park to Oxbow Park with two of his friends.

The rope got stuck underneath a log and the Eslinger was in “one of those truly life and death situations,” said Mark Maunder, Gresham fire battalion chief.

The two friends called for help, one of them was able to get to a home downstream and call 9-1-1 while the other called in on a cell phone.

The water rescue team at Station 75 was dispatched at 8:10 p.m. and reached the river by 8:22 p.m.

Once they parked the truck, firefighters got help from a nearby resident to get all the equipment down to the riverbank.

After reaching the bank, they still needed to get their equipment 400 yards upstream and closer to Eslinger, so rescuers carried and shuttled equipment to the location via raft.

Eslinger was in uncharted territory, which increased the risk for water rescuers significantly as they assessed the safest way to get the man out of the water.

After three unsuccessful attempts to get him out of the water, the fourth attempt was successful after the man had spent more than an hour in the cold, swift water.

The pressure was felt by the 30-plus rescuers along the river’s shore that day who could see Eslinger a mere 30 feet away from them.

Lt. Travis Soles, a 10-year Gresham fire veteran, swam to him and held him above water while cutting the rope.

Soles, utilizing what’s called the live bait technique, had a rope tied to his life jacket with a quick-release option. This same rope was anchored on shore.

Once Soles cut the rope that was dragging Eslinger underwater, the two of them returned to shore in a pendulum fashion.

Soles is one of the most experienced water rescuers and has an extensive water background. He works as a diving instructor, Maunder said.

“If we would have failed on the fourth attempt and tried again five minutes later, he wouldn’t be alive,” Maunder said.

Eslinger had been in the river for more than an hour by the time he was rescued and was not always able to keep his head above the water because of the strong current and rapid nature of the river.

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Lt. Neal Dietz said.

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