By Jim Brannan
My name is Jim Brannan and I Iive in Ocean Shores.
On Tuesday, the 6th of June, at about 7 p.m., I was pulled from the surf at Damon Point beach with the assistance of the local fire department. I had been in the water for around an hour or more. I fell out of my small boat and then capsized it trying to get back in it. I was about 20 feet from the rocks of the sunken jetty. From the rocks to the beach is a long way!
After many tries to flip the boat back over and bail it out to get back in, I gave up and started to swim to shore with the boat as it was swamped but still floating and I could still hang on to it to help keep me afloat. About halfway back, I started to get tired and cold and I know I was getting into trouble. I then started to blow on the whistle on my life vest. Some people on the beach heard it and called the fire department. In time, I heard the sirens, and saw about four guys coming down the beach but with no visible means to come in the water and help me. I then turned around and hung on to the boat expecting to hear a jet ski, but nothing came. So, I swam some more. Finally, I got close enough to the beach and heard someone yell. I turned and saw them shooting a line out to me. I swam to it and they pulled me in.
The guys of the fire department did a very good job once I got to shore, but I was and I’m still shocked to hear that Ocean Shores does not have a BEACH RESCUE PROGRAM! At one time, I got mad and wondered if they were just going to stand on the beach and watch me drown.
I was told that the firemen can only go up to their waists in the surf. That they do not have any surf-rescue equipment outside of a line gun that will shot a line out about 800 feet with a life vest at the end. That is why these young men become fireman, to save lives, and then you tell them that they cannot go into the water and do not give them the proper equipment? That is setting them up for a dangerous situation!
Really, a beach community that does not HAVE a beach rescue program? I did not know that and just presumed (of course) a beach community would, of course, would have a beach rescue program. That is like Mount Hood not having a ski patrol and not telling the public about it. Or Spokane not having a wildfire fighting team. These are just logical types of emergency services provided and needed for these areas. So, a beach community would have a beach rescue program; Ocean Shores, a destination beach community, does not! Unacceptable!
I understand that some years ago Ocean Shores did have a rescue unit and even had several jet skis, but due to the tragic loss of two emergency workers in surf rescue training, plus a budget crunch, the mayor and City Council closed the program saying it was too dangerous and expensive.
But isn’t this like shutting down the fire department because we tragically lose a firefighter in a structure fire, saying it is because it is too dangerous and expensive? NO! You would revisit the situation, learn from it and make changes. Yes, it is a dangerous job, doing dangerous work, you make changes and move on. The City Council has no interest now in even considering restarting the program again. I know, I was at the last City Council meeting and asked.
The Fire Department spends much of its time taking people to the hospital, out of town. With so few workers, if they are out of town and a person would call 911 for a surf rescue, who would show? How many people will lose their lives off the Ocean Shores coastline due to lack of help? How many rescue workers will suffer to stand onshore and watch those people fighting for their lives because Ocean Shores decided that so many other city projects were more important than beach rescue?
Until more attention can be brought to this problem, the community needs to know, what you can and cannot expect in the way of help on the beaches of Ocean Shores this summer!
