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June 24, 2006

Rescue units search creek after finding raft

By Debbie Wachter Morris

Emergency officials are hoping now that it was a false alarm.

Several local fire departments and other rescue units were called to Ellport Borough last night to search for a person who might have gone into the Connoquenessing Creek.

Calling it a water rescue, the Wurtemburg-Perry Volunteer Fire Department set up a command station at the Zona bus station on Route 488.

About 40 firefighters went out in torrential rains to conduct a search of the stream.

Divers from the Unionville Fire Department in Butler County were placed on standby. A state police helicopter was summoned but could not fly because of the weather. The S.O.S. search dog team of West Pittsburg was summoned, but later canceled for the same reason.

Nets were placed into the stream, according to Lawrence County 911 Center reports.

Al Leo, Wurtemburg-Perry Fire Chief who was in charge at the scene, said the department received a call around 5:30 p.m. that an unoccupied raft was floating down the stream near the First Bridge in Ellport Borough.

He said the raft was a typical inflatable swimming pool raft, and not a sturdy raft used on a whitewater expedition.

A customer of the Oak Grove Inn walked out of the tavern and spotted the raft floating, Leo said.

Thinking someone possibly could have been on the raft and fallen in the stream, the fire department went to the scene and called out the Franklin Township and Ellwood City Borough fire departments, Leo said.

“We did an intensive search of the area from the Nelco plant toward the firehall, and from Fifth Street in Ellwood City upstream to Ellport Borough,” he said.

No one was seen actually falling into the stream, and no one was reported missing to the fire department, he said.

The search was called off around 7 p.m. when another storm hit.

“I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk,” Leo said.

Reflecting on the type of raft, he said it could have blown into the stream from someone’s swimming pool.

“The search was called off indefinitely,” he said, adding it will resume if the fire department receives a missing person report.

The parking lot of the Oak Grove Inn was jammed with cars, and the lively tavern was filled with people aged mostly in their 20s and 30s. People were playing pool, eating, and drinking and loud music was on the speaker system.

A manager of the restaurant, who refused to give his name, stood against the kitchen door. He said he was unaware of the search effort going on behind his business.

“It’s been crazy like this in here all night,” he said. “I’ve been in the kitchen cooking and I didn’t even know anything was going on.”

Ellwood City Mayor Don Clyde said that the spot in the stream behind the Oak Grove Inn is rough water, and is the confluence of the Slippery Rock and the Connoquenessing Creeks.

“People have said the water back there is 90 feet deep in places,” Clyde said.

Ellwood City police officers Michael McBride and Chris Hardie went to assist with the search and combed one side of a stream bank.

“I didn’t see any sign of anyone in the water,” McBride said.

Nor did the police department receive reports of a missing person, he added.

Earlier in the day, however, a couple of youths who were swimming in the stream informed police they had found a little white dog along the banks, McBride said.

The boys did not know the dog’s owner and it was taken to the animal shelter.

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