Burbank Fire Department‘s Swift Water Rescue team, with an assist from Glendale and Pasadena firefighters, pulled a middle-aged man from the wash tonight before he was swept away by the current.
The rescue operation was sent in motion near Tulare Avenue at 5:16 p.m. when one of the residents called 911 and reported a man yelling for help from the wash, said Burbank Fire Department Battalion Chief Ron Barone.
“The man possibly a transient was sitting in one of the feeder drainage tubes and holding on to a rock shelf, yelling for help,” Barone told City News Service. “Firefighters using a helicopter were able to lower an aerial ladder and one of the firefighters was able to grab the man and lift him to safety.”
Glendale and Pasadena firefighters were staged at points downstream in case the man was washed into the river, Barone said.
The man was conscious and breathing when he was pulled to safety. The operation took about an hour, authorities said.
— City News Service