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Swiftwater rescue donation

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 25, 2026

By Christi Baron Olympic Peninsula News Group

Clallam County Fire District 1 firefighters Chris Martin, left, and Mike Zavadlov, right, accept a $1,000 donation from Ed Bedford of Bedford’s Craft Sodas in Port Angeles to support the department’s swiftwater rescue program and its effort to purchase a jet boat. Zavadlov said the department responded to five boat flips this winter, including one fatal incident. Bedford made the contribution in memory of his friend John Brewer, the former publisher of the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum, who died in April 2024 in a Montana fly-fishing incident when the boat he was in struck a submerged log and overturned. The fire district in Forks currently relies on a neighboring jurisdiction for access to a jet boat. The swiftwater team continues fundraising efforts through a GoFundMe campaign. (Christi Baron/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Clallam County Fire District 1 firefighters Chris Martin, left, and Mike Zavadlov, right, accept a $1,000 donation from Ed Bedford of Bedford’s Craft Sodas in Port Angeles to support the department’s swiftwater rescue program and its effort to purchase a jet boat. Zavadlov said the department responded to five boat flips this winter, including one fatal incident. Bedford made the contribution in memory of his friend John Brewer, the former publisher of the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum, who died in April 2024 in a Montana fly-fishing incident when the boat he was in struck a submerged log and overturned. The fire district in Forks currently relies on a neighboring jurisdiction for access to a jet boat. The swiftwater team continues fundraising efforts through a GoFundMe campaign. (Christi Baron/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Clallam County Fire District 1 firefighters Chris Martin, left, and Mike Zavadlov, right, accept a $1,000 donation from Ed Bedford of Bedford’s Craft Sodas in Port Angeles to support the department’s swiftwater rescue program and its effort to purchase a jet boat.

Zavadlov said the department responded to five boat flips this winter, including one fatal incident.

Bedford made the contribution in memory of his friend John Brewer, the former publisher of the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum, who died in April 2024 in a Montana fly-fishing incident when the boat he was in struck a submerged log and overturned.

The fire district in Forks currently relies on a neighboring jurisdiction for access to a jet boat. The swiftwater team continues fundraising efforts through a GoFundMe campaign.

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