A woman found herself in a precarious situation last Tuesday when she was spotted floating in the Puyallup River. At around 12:29 pm, deputies were dispatched to the scene close to the 7900 block of River Rd E in Puyallup, as reported by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department blog. With quick updates from agencies along the shore attempting to aid the woman with life vests and ropes, swift water-trained deputies donned their specialist gear and prepared to enter the water.
Rushing to help, their swift water-trained deputies were suited up and approached the water, though no actual footage of the woman's rescue is available. However, a detective who was directly involved in the river-swimming rescue spoke about the experience. "We don’t have footage of the rescue, but we did speak to a detective who swam out in the river to rescue the woman. Listen to him explain how they performed the rescue," the blog noted.
Twenty minutes later, at 12:49 pm, it was announced that rescue swimmers had reached the woman and were bringing her to shore. The rescue was far from over, though the immediate danger had subsided; bringing her to safety was still a challenge. Due to the absence of a riverbank, the first responders had to rely on ropes and a ladder to craft a makeshift ramp, which allowed them to pull the woman up the steep bank to dry land and seek to prevent the onset of hypothermia.
While details of how the woman ended up in the river remain unclear, it was confirmed that her condition is stable. In what was described by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department blog as "an great team effort," the deputies and the responding agencies are lauded for their prompt and efficient rescue of the woman in dire need. "This was an great team effort by all the first responders who all rushed to the scene to help someone in dire need," commended the official blog post.
