Daily Sitka Sentinel

2 Weekend Searches Have Happy Endings

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

The Sitka Fire Department search and rescue team had a busy weekend, but all calls ended well, reports the team captain, police Lt. Lance Ewers.

On Saturday, police called the team asking for help in finding an 8-year-old boy. The boy’s mother had called police at 3:45 p.m. to report the boy and his bike were missing from the Indian River neighborhood.

Police conducted interviews in the area, and search and rescue volunteers started up the Indian River trail. Hikers coming down from the trail said they had seen the bike but not the boy. Team members found the bike about a quarter mile up the trail, and located the boy in good condition about a half-mile farther up the trail.

Ewers said the child had gotten turned around and wanted to go home. He walked out with team members, and was reunited with his family at the fire hall.

Ewers said the mission took a total of two and a half hours, and involved police and search volunteers.

Later on Sunday, search and rescue and EMTs were called out to help a man who had injured his knee on a hike near the top of Mt. Verstovia and was unable to walk down.

The man’s wife called 911 around 6 p.m. Sunday. She said the couple and their dog were on their way down the trail when he blew out his knee while picking up the dog. The man, an experienced hiker and EMT, knew he would need help getting down, Ewers said.

“They knew there was zero way to get down on their own,” he said.

Because the injury was non-life threatening and the patient could be reached by search and rescue, the Coast Guard determined a helicopter medevac was not needed.

More than a dozen EMTs and search team volunteers responded, carrying medical equipment and a wheeled litter basket up the trail.

“We got him into the litter with wheels, and it was a slow, step-by-step process,” Ewers said.

It was 3 a.m. this morning before they reached the trail head where an ambulance was waiting to take the hiker to Sitka Community Hospital. Ewers said the mission went smoothly because the injured man was cooperative and knowledgeable about the process.

“He was a great patient,” Ewers said.

Also this weekend, the search and rescue squad helped with “bear aware” duties in the Saturday morning Medvedjie/Solstice races on Green Lake Road. Ewers said the team cleaned bear scat off the trail on Friday, only to find more Saturday morning.

“There were fresh piles the morning of the run,” Ewers said.

The team blew air horns and ran ATVs up and down the road, in an effort to scare bears away before the races, he said, and no bears were seen during the event.