[1]Firefighters finally get their patient out of the marsh and to an ambulance. / Courtesy photo by West Thurston Regional Fire Authority
Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A motorist pulled over for speeding last night ran off into the dark and ended up spending more than 12 hours stuck in a marshy area along the Black River outside Littlerock.
The individual was stuck chest deep in the swampy backwater of the river, and crews had to blaze a path through brush with chainsaws to get to him, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Chief Robert Scott.
The rescue operation for the 44-year-old man took all night, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
“The dive team was called, and put on their dry suits and walked out to him,” Lt. Cliff Ziesemer said. “But they were unable to bring him back out because he was so hypothermic.”
Fire Chief Scott said part of the reason it took so long was because they were waiting for daylight, but also because of the composition of the ground, partially quicksand like.
The dive team deputy waded through waist deep water and very thick brush for about two hundred yards to reach the man.
“It took an hour and 20 minutes just to move him 50 yards,” Scott said. “Every time the deputy would go to move him, the deputy would sink.”
The temperature overnight got down to about 37 degrees, according to Scott.
Responders were able to ferry out some items to keep the man’s body temperature from dropping further, according to Scott, such as blankets, heat packs and glucose.
“If it wasn’t for us getting that stuff to the deputy, the outcome would have been much different,” he said.
The patient, James A. Mueller, was finally brought out to waiting medics about 11 o’clock this morning, put into an ambulance and taken to the hospital, according to Ziesemer. Mueller is a Thurston County resident.
The lieutenant said it began about 7:15 p.m. when a deputy tried to stop a car along Littlerock Road south of Tumwater for speeding, and the driver fled on foot.
Around 12:45 a.m., they got a 911 call about someone screaming for help in the swampy area, roughly 200 yards off the road near 110th Avenue Southwest.
They requested assistance from helicopters from both the Air Force and King County, but neither could help because of the fog, he said.
Chief Scott called it a very manpower intensive operation, with nearly 25 firefighters from four other departments joining them.
Ziesemer said the man had felony warrants.
Update: Mueller was released from Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia a few hours later and then booked into the Thurston County Jail for warrants. No charges or ticket is planned for the speeding incident, according to Ziesemer.