A vehicle was found partially submerged just a few feet from shore near East Shelby Street and East Park Drive East on Saturday, prompting the Seattle Fire Department to send rescue swimmers into the water to search around it. The water rescue response unfolded along the edge of Union Bay near East Montlake Park.
According to the Seattle Fire Dept.
, crews arrived on scene at the intersection to find the vehicle sitting partly underwater a few feet from the shoreline. Rescue swimmers were sent in to search the area immediately around the submerged vehicle, the department reported. It remains unclear how the vehicle ended up in the water or whether anyone was inside at the time.
A Shoreline Built for Public Access, Not Vehicles
The spot where the vehicle went in sits at the northern edge of East Montlake Park, directly along Union Bay near the entrance to the Montlake Cut, according to Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks. The park includes trails, floating bridges and an observation deck.
Seattle Public Utilities also maintains Pump Station 13 in the same stretch, managing stormwater and wastewater collected from the Union Bay drainage basin, per Seattle.gov. The utility also maintains a force-main right-of-way in the area.
Rescue Swimmers Trained for Fast Water Entry
Seattle Fire's rescue swimmers complete a 40-hour Rapid Entry Rescue Swimmer program covering water safety, open-water survival, and scene management before training locally with fireboats and technical dive teams, the Seattle Fire Department has said. The program's training is focused on water rescues.
The department has also leaned on newer tools for broader water searches. In July 2024, Seattle Fire launched a rescue watercraft program with two customized Sea-Doos stationed at Leschi Moorage on Lake Washington, extending search coverage beyond the 300 feet offshore that Seattle divers were certified to swim, according to Firehouse Magazine. The watercraft can reach speeds up to 52 mph, letting crews close distance on the water quickly when minutes matter.
Not the First Submerged Vehicle This Year
Saturday's incident echoes a similar scene from August, when Seattle Fire divers and rescue swimmers searched Lake Washington after a pickup truck went into about 10 feet of water near the Day Street Boat Ramp. Crews found the cab empty with all four doors open, and witnesses reported at the time that occupants had swum to shore before rescuers arrived. Whether a similar outcome played out near East Montlake Park has not been confirmed.
The same month also saw Seattle Fire respond to a rescue in the nearby Montlake Cut. Together, those incidents point to a stretch of shoreline that keeps SFD crews busy, even as the department averages 70 water rescues per year, per Firehouse Magazine's reporting.
Swimming Restrictions and a City Built on Water
Seattle Municipal Code Section 16.28.010 bans open-water swimming in the city's navigational waters except in designated areas, within 50 feet of shore or a pier, or within 25 feet of a vessel, with swimming strictly prohibited inside the Montlake Cut and within 300 feet of boat ramps, according to Seattle.gov. That regulatory backdrop underscores why vessel and vehicle incursions into the water, even accidental ones, draw a fast and coordinated emergency response.
Seattle's geography creates a need for marine emergency readiness. The department is also weighing new technology to help with searches like Saturday's. In July, Seattle Fire sought public feedback on acquiring up to three Emergency Response Aerial Technology drones to give incident commanders real-time aerial views during water rescues and fires, according to the city's own review process. No further details on the vehicle's occupants or the cause of the incident at East Shelby Street and East Park Drive East had been released as of Saturday morning.
