1 Killed, 3 Rescued

Last night (2/24/16) around 10:30 I went to use my new skateboard, check out the building swell at the breakwall, and take a shower. When I skated over to the breakwall I could hear yelling, "Help!" - long pause - "Help!". A fisherman must've fallen on the rocks because of the large waves.

Continuing down the road to King Harbor Yacht Club where waves were occasionally crashing and washing over into the parking lot, I saw young couple smoking and telling me they think they hear yelling. So I called the Harbor Patrol. That was 11:08pm. I spoke to someone on the phone who I think I woke up, described what was going on and exactly where I heard the yelling, but it probably wasnt for another 10-12 minutes until the boat came out from their dock. In that time I was standing on the end of the parking lot yelling back, "Help is coming!", then so was an employee inside the KHYC. The voice on the rocks was panicking, "Help! We can't Swim! We're drowning! We Can't Swim! Help! Somebody!"

All I could do was stand there and wait for harbor patrol. I could see car headlights and the people gathering in the harbor patrol parking in the far east side of the channel shouting, "Help is coming soon, you're going to be ok!"

Between 11:18 and 11:20 there were several ambulances, firetrucks, police officers, the harbor patrol rescue boat, and a coast guard helicopter all arriving at the scene. The boat pulled right up to the people who told them, "There's four of us!" and the rescuer swimmer worked to get them on board quickly. At this point two police officers walked up to me and were chatting about my presence and if anyone else was on the rocks. Where we stood was probably 100 yards away from the panic, and we couldn't even see these four people yelling, but also saw nobody else leave or go in the breakwall. It was pitch black in the channel. Just then, a large set of waves came, washing over the breakwall where the rescue was happening and flooding into the parking lot where we stood. One of the officers and I ran as fast as we could to where the parking lot opens up and flattens out more, dispersing the wave energy. The other officer stood there keeping his balance in the wash and got completely soaked head to toe. While we ran into the larger parking lot during the second set wave I saw about 9 more officers, their cars, two lifeguards, and two ambulances. Most of the emergency response had gone straight to the harbor patrol building, but it was assuring that this many people still came to the other side of the scene.

With the coast guard helicopter circling above, shining light on the scene scrolling for anyone else and a news or police helicopter also hovering, and all the officers laughing at the soaking wet guy, the situation felt like it was winding down and that the people were all saved. Confirmation came over the lifeguard radios that all four people were back on land. A lifeguard said I was the first person to call it in and thanked me.

It wasn't until this morning that the buzz of helping save a few lives was cut short, by this KTLA article which states that unfortunately one of the men died. It goes to show how dangerous disobeying posted warning signs can be during the exact conditions that the signs warns for: high surf. The group may have realized they were out fishing too far on the rocks, with the rising tide and rising swell, they were probably making their way back when a set big enough to come over the wall swept them over and crashing down to the rocks below. In a sense the survivors are lucky they were knocked into the channel rather than sucked out to sea especially considering they said they can't swim. And lucky that there voices were heard screaming for help. It's very sad, however, that one of the four people died after all of that. 

The running lights from harbor patrol is all that can be seen, but the breakwall extends out in the entire right of this frame. 

Poor photo quality but consistent with how dark it was and difficult to see where the screaming voices were coming from  

Coincidence that I built this skateboard the night before and decided to go for a short ride this night to test it out only to be led to calling harbor patrol for the rescue.