Emergency responders in Albany pleaded with residents to remember life jackets after they rescued the same two people from the Willamette River — twice.
Neither time Saturday, an Albany Fire Department spokesperson said, did the pair wear life vests.
“It really speaks to how dangerous that portion of the river is,” said the spokesperson, Sandy Roberts.
In a press release, authorities declined to identify the rescued “to protect their privacy.” But in both incidents — first at about 2 p.m. and then just before 4:30 p.m. — Albany Fire and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office rushed to reports of people stranded in a quick-moving portion of the river near Monteith Riverpark.
There the pair clung to brush on the riverbank, incapable of returning safely to shore because the current was too strong and there was overgrown vegetation, officials said in the press release.
After the first rescue, Roberts said, the two went back on the river with a different inner tube but had the same outcome. She said to her knowledge, they had not drunk alcohol or used other substances.
Emergency crews piloted boats through debris-filled water to reach them and bring them ashore, where paramedics assessed and released them with no injuries.
Roberts stressed that the fire department offers free life jackets at each fire station. Officials just ask that residents return them by the end of the season.
“It doesn’t matter how good of a swimmer you are,” she said, “if you’re out on the water, have a life vest.”
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