By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Firefighters and police spent as much as three hours last night retrieving a man who got caught by darkness walking Olequa Creek in Winlock.
Firefighters were called about 11:20 p.m. to assist law enforcement in locating a person who was unable to get out of the woods and had made a small signal fire, according to Lewis County Fire District 15.
He had been on Tennessee Road and was walking the creek and it got dark, Firefighter Patrick Jacobson said. The man, in his 40s, didn’t have a flashlight with him.
The area was northwest of the bridge near the 1400 block of Kerron Street, according to Jacobson.
Four fire department personnel and two police officers took part in the effort.
“We went into the woods just north of the bridge, hiked up and around and came back down to him,” Jacobson said. “We were able to walk him out the way he came in.”
The terrain was such, the rescuers couldn’t always see the small fire the man had lit, so Toledo Police Department Sgt. Sam Patrick launched a drone and hovered it above the man’s location, Jacobson said.
“We were able to see the drone, and use that for a visual reference,” he said.