PORT ANGELES — A Coast Guard helicopter crew hoisted to safety a 12-year-old Spokane boy who was stranded Monday on rocks abutting a cliff at Salt Creek Campground.
“He was very cold, very frightened,” Joyce-area Fire District 4 Chief Greg Waters said late Monday afternoon.
Waters said the boy, dressed in shorts, a shirt and sandals, had waded or swam to a flat rock at around noon Monday.
The boy was perched on a 25- to 30-foot rock located east of Tongue Point between Salt Creek’s main RV campground and its main tent sites, Waters said.
“His only way to get off was to swim, and the current was ripping through there pretty good,” Waters said.
Fire District 4 responded to the call at 12:12 p.m. Monday with a command vehicle, and engine and an ambulance.
Waters said a Coast Guard pilot lowered a rescue swimmer who hooked a rescue collar to the boy, lifting the two to a grassy area where the boy was reunited with his family.
“It was good teamwork all around,” Waters said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
