Approximately 46 minutes after a person went underwater at Deep Lake in Millersylvania State Park south of Olympia and did not resurface on Saturday, a dive team located the person 15-feet below the surface and a Tumwater medic unit was able to resuscitate them.
“It’s pretty remarkable for crews to get pulses back after that length of time underwater,” said Lacey Fire District Three Deputy Chief Jennifer Schmidt.
The victim, whose name has not yet been released, was transported to the hospital on Saturday. Emergency crews did not know the victim’s condition as of Monday morning.
The victim was reportedly visiting the state park with family when they went underwater at 5:05 p.m. on Saturday, according to Schmidt. Approximately five minutes later, at 5:10 p.m., someone at the park called 911 to report the victim had not resurfaced.
Crews with West Thurston Regional Fire Authority, Lacey Fire District Three and Tumwater Fire & EMS were dispatched within three minutes of that call — but due to the hard-to-reach location, it took Lacey Fire District Three’s dive team and battalion chief 22 minutes to arrive, according to Deputy Chief Jennifer Schmidt. In the meantime, West Thurston set up an incident command and began searching as best as they could.
“Something of that magnitude, it takes multiple agencies to come together,” said West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Operations chief Robert Scott. “Firefighters are not putting on scuba tanks and going underwater. We don’t have the specialized training for that, but we do provide the support for that operation.”
When the Lacey Fire District 3 crew arrived, two rescue swimmers and a diver deployed into Deep Lake and began searching for the victim.
The diver located the victim 15 feet underwater at 5:51 p.m. — 46 minutes after the victim reportedly went under.
Three minutes later, at 5:54 p.m., a Tumwater medic unit had taken over patient care and begun CPR. The victim was transported to the hospital soon after.
As of Monday morning, crews did not know what caused the victim to go under and not resurface.
