Crews brace for more water rescue calls as people flock to rivers amid rising temperatures
SACRAMENTO — The rising temperatures have many people heading to local rivers, and that has rescue crews bracing for more water rescue calls.
"It's definitely cold," said jet skier Haseeb Iqbal.
Iqbal was launching his jet ski at the Discovery Park boat launch, which just reopened last week after being flooded for months after winter storms.
"We see a lot of logs, a lot of garbage debris for now," Iqbal said.
And now, local rescue crews have a river warning.
"You just really have to be careful around the water this year," said Captain Justin Sylvia with the Sacramento Fire Department.
Capt. Sylvia is urging people to take some simple steps before setting sail.
"Make sure that your boat is fully functional, it runs, start it on the dock, make sure that your motor fires up, make sure your plugs are in," he said.
It's an effort to prevent calls like one Monday evening when crews dispatched a full water rescue response to the Sacramento River with more than 18 firefighters.
But when they arrived, there was no one injured and it was just a mechanical malfunction.
"The boat became stranded, the motor stopped working and they were floating downstream," Sylvia said. "Once your boat becomes disabled, you're at the mercy of the river."
Iqbal said he's also had mechanical issues this season.
"We were actually stuck yesterday and we changed the batteries on one of the skis," he said. "We didn't have it on a trickle charger, and it went flat."
The water warning comes as people try to beat the heat in the coming weeks.
"We have very high flows right now and the river is up," Sylvia said. "There are downed trees that you may not be able to see at the surface level, but they're down there."
Sacramento River levels in the downtown area are currently eight feet higher than they were the same time last year.
