Solomon Florea has lived in a houseboat on the Columbia River for about two decades and has become grimly attuned to dangers on the water. Florea spots a drowning victim on the water every few years, he said, and feared that’s what had happened last week when he saw a man 100 yards out, bobbing next to an empty sailboat.
Grabbing his kayak and a life preserver, Florea rushed out and discovered the man was still alive — but his strength was fading in the frigid waters. He pulled him to shore on Hayden Island, west of Jantzen Beach, and used the man’s phone to call 911.
“I was going to try and get him over to my house, but, you know, he’s in pretty bad shape,” Florea, 46, told emergency dispatcher Holly Campbell in that 911 call. Florea and the boater had landed on a stretch of beach away from any roads, so Campbell summoned boats from Portland Fire & Rescue and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve them and rush the boater to the hospital.
“He’s very scared,” Florea told Campbell, as the rescue boats approached on that chilly afternoon of Nov. 16.
“Very lucky that you were there for him,” she replied on the 911 call. “It would have had a different, different situation otherwise.”
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office honored both Florea and Campbell on Monday, crediting them with prompt, calm and deliberate actions that saved the life of the 38-year-old man who fell into the Columbia. Authorities didn’t release that man’s name but said he was in good condition after leaving the hospital.
“This is one of those rare moments where courage, calm thinking and strong training all aligned. And it was a moment that brought two heroes together,” Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell said at Monday’s ceremony at the sheriff’s River Patrol Unit headquarters in Northeast Portland.
The sheriff’s office said the river water was just 57 degrees on the Sunday afternoon when the boater fell into the Columbia. They said he was wearing a flotation device and had a whistle and phone with him in the water, all of which contributed to his successful rescue.
“I’m just there doing what I would do as a proper decent human,” Florea said Monday. “Just calming him down, you know, and making sure that he knows that he was not alone.”
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