Thread: Fire crews watch man drown: budget cuts strictly forbade th

'Handcuffed by policy': Fire crews watch man die

City policy changed after budget cuts cited as reason rescuers couldn't act


Police, fire crews and passers-by in Alameda, Calif., stand along the beach on Monday while a man walked into the water and later drowned. Photo provided by oaklandlocal.commsnbc.com staff and news service reports msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 40 minutes ago 2011-06-01T18:23:23

SAN FRANCISCO — Fire crews and police could only watch after a man waded into San Francisco Bay, stood up to his neck and waited. They wanted to do something, but a policy tied to earlier budget cuts strictly forbade them from trying to save the 50-year-old, officials said.

A witness finally pulled the apparently suicidal man's lifeless body from the 54-degree water.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that the man, later identified as Raymond Zack, spent nearly an hour in the water before he drowned. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18177414

According to reports, first responders and about 75 people watched the incident on Monday from a beach in Alameda, a city of about 75,000 people across from San Francisco.

Interim Alameda Fire Chief Mike D'Orazi said that due to 2009 budget cuts his crews did not have the training or cold-water gear to go into the water.

"The incident yesterday was deeply regrettable," he said Tuesday. "But I can also see it from our firefighters' perspective. They're standing there wanting to do something, but they are handcuffed by policy at that point."

But Tuesday night, after hearing from angry residents at a City Council meeting, the city promised to spend up to $40,000 to certify 16 firefighters in land-based water rescues, KGO-TV reported.

"This just strikes me as not just a problem with funding, but a problem with the culture of what's going on in our city, that no one would take the time and help this drowning man," KGO quoted resident Adam Gillitt as saying.

A witness, Perry Smith, said Zack was visible from the shore of Crown Memorial State Beach and was looking at people.

"We expected to see at some point that there would be a concern for him," another witness, Gary Barlow, told KGO.

Witness Sharon Brunetti told the Mercury News that Zack's stepmother stopped her on the beach and asked her to call 911, saying he was threatening to take his own life.

Zack "gradually inched out farther and farther" from the shore but occasionally glanced back over his shoulder at the beach, Brunetti said.

"The next thing he was floating face down," the Mercury News quoted her as saying.

Too shallow for boat
The Coast Guard was called to the scene, but the water was too shallow for its boat. A Coast Guard helicopter arrived more than an hour later because it had been on another call and had to refuel.

As for police, they didn't have the gear for the cold water and couldn't risk being pulled under.

"Certainly this was tragic, but police officers are tasked with ensuring public safety, including the safety of personnel who are sent to try to resolve these kinds of situations," Alameda police Lt. Sean Lynch said.

"He was engaged in a deliberate act of taking his own life," Lynch told the Mercury News. "We did not know whether he was violent, whether drugs were involved. It's not a situation of a typical rescue."

There are no lifeguards at the beach, said Isa Polt-Jones, a spokeswoman with the East Bay Regional Park District. Signs at the park advise swimmers to enter the water at their own risk.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43233984/ns ... ?GT1=43001

San Francisco is releasing criminal felons so they can't be deported, and offering in state tuition for illegal aliens.

They can't afford to lose even one taxpayer (otherwise known as a citizen or a sucker).

According to reports, first responders and about 75 people watched the incident on Monday from a beach in Alameda, a city of about 75,000 people across from San Francisco

Not a life line thrown to this man, but when it comes to (illegal alien (mod edit) these same politicians and city council members will gladly give all they can and more of tax payer dollars. This is incomprehensible

Unbelievable! Not even the will to go unpaid and do the deed as a good Samaritan? Frightening!

Sounds like to me to many watchers and no doers.54 degrees isnt all that cold that someone could not have gone in to do something.Just an bad example of bad budget cuts and no one wanting to help even the fireman could have went in shoot i have fallen in water waterfowl hunting water temp 40 or below air temp in the thirties drained out my chest wadders and kept on hunting.

Hard to figure how they think in liberal lala land. Check this out.



San Francisco Fire Fighters Called to Help Rescue Tiger

Firefighters were called in to assist San Francisco Zoo officials when Tony the tiger couldn’t (or wouldn’t) climb back out of the dry moat that surrounds the tiger exhibit. It wasn’t exactly a technical rescue, but there was a small amount of rigging, some hauling, and tranquilizer gun involved. Click more to read the story.
Jille Tucker of the The San Francisco Chronicle writes:

Tony the tiger was feeling grrrreat, albeit a bit groggy Tuesday, one day after firefighters and San Francisco Zoo officials hit him with tranquilizer darts and pulled him out of a moat where he spent four nights.

The 360-pound Siberian tiger, who is 18 years old, or 90 in cat years, had climbed down Thursday into the dry moat in the tiger enclosure.

The spot is one of his favorite places in the outdoor enclosure, but this time, he refused to leave.

Given his age, zoo officials didn’t want to try to starve him out. So they tossed his daily dose of medicine-laced meatballs, other food and buckets of water into the moat. Tony played with the buckets and looked healthy and content in the moat, with no sign he wanted to leave.

“He just was not motivated to climb the steps or rocks to return to his exhibit,â€

This actually happened in Alameda not San Francisco. Alameda is also adjacent to San Francisco Bay. It is a much smaller city, so I guess they have money problems. But ....not saving a person who is drowning? Very disturbing. Police, fire and rescue should never be budgeted out.