A Dangerous Place

The Flume in Wilmington is a beautiful part of the AuSable River where it is naturally channelled between narrow rock cliffs. The river was high from the heavy rain - 3 inches in two days, that's a lot for up here. 

Five teenagers from Plattsburgh drove down yesterday to swim at The Flume, and one used a rope swing to jump off the cliff into the river. He knew he was in big trouble when he hit the swift current below and yelled for help. One of the others jumped in...and was never seen again. The three remaining kids watched in horror from above as the first teen was carried downstream, through the swift water and rocks.

The initial 911 call came in at about 2 pm, just as I was getting cleaned up from a long day of tree cutting and brush burning. Upper Jay FD received a request for assistance ten minutes later so I grabbed my gear and headed up to the scene. There were rescuers and first responder vehicles lined up on both sides of the road, and I found our guys with the big UJFD rescue van near the scene. 

Two of us donned gear and a state trooper joined us for the rough trek along the AuSable River bank, over rocks, mud holes and steep banks. We spotted our water rescue team at the point of an island where a rescue helicopter was orbiting over the first victim. He didn't survive.

We got a page to redeploy to the Wilmington fire station so we helped the water rescue guys get out of the river and we slogged the wet gear back upstream to the van. At the station we were told that the rescue was now officially a recovery, meaning that the assisting units (us) could leave. The idea is to keep a minimum number of personnel for the recovery to limit the risk of another incident. Later on we heard on the scanner that the second victim wasn't found and they were suspending the recovery operations overnight.

The Adirondacks are dangerous. There's usually no one to remind people to be careful. Closing off areas is impractical, given the vast areas and scarcity of law enforcement. Restricting freedom of movement isn't tolerated, anyway, this is an area where independence is highly valued. 

The wilderness and its attendant dangers are readily accessible to visitors whose only frame of reference may be a backwoods TV reality program. Things can quickly go wrong on the river or trail and even with good communications it takes a while for responders to arrive - if they can even find you.

While slogging upstream, I heard stories about The Flume and the dangers of the AuSable. The river demands respect. There's been fatal kayak accidents, families stranded on ice floes, injured swimmers, lost hikers, etc. It's been that way for a long time, as evident in the historic newspaper articles. 

Unless we get a billion-dollar FEMA grant (and a NYS constitutional amendment) to enviscerate the AuSable, it'll continue to attract visitors...and EMS teams.