CPW Park Rangers recall the night they pulled 10 people from Lake Pueblo after a boating accident
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — Friday, two Colorado Parks and Wildlife Park Rangers opened up about their experience surrounding a Memorial Day weekend boating accident that killed a Fort Carson soldier and his wife.
Sunday, May 29, Park Rangers Joe Portteus and Seth Herndon received a call around 8 p.m. about a boating accident on Lake Pueblo. The information they had was that a boat had tipped and people were in the water.
While they were prepared for a rescue, they weren't expecting that 11 people would need to be saved.
“We were certainly surprised by the number of people that were in the water-based on the description of the boat. We thought it would be maybe three or maybe four people. So there was a lot more than that, and we just decided to start at one end and pick up as many as we can as quickly as we can,” said Portteus.
The rangers said they tried to call for backup, but the weather conditions made it hard for them to communicate with other rangers.
“We really couldn’t hear or be heard on the radio,” said Portteus.
Portteus said they both had to make tough decisions.
“We had to make tough decisions like do we pick up adults or do we pick up children first,” said Portteus.
The rangers said their boat's capacity was only meant to hold nine people, including themselves, but they had ten survivors on board.
“We were definitely over-compacity, but that was not really a concern at that point. We were out here trying to help these people that needed our help,” said Herndon.
As for the eleventh victim who needed rescuing, the rangers credit a good samaritan. Both rangers wanted to thank Nikolas Fedorczuk for his help during a high-stress situation.
“He got the 11th person on board that allowed us to get the 10 to the paramedics as quickly as possible. Without him, we could have potentially lost one of those children,” said Seth Herndon.
With Farther's Day being one of the busiest weekends at Lake Pueblo, the rangers are reminding everyone to wear a life jacket if they're on the water.
“We will be out this weekend. We got patrols running from about 10:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. We will have extra people out on the shoreline. We will be especially looking for overloaded vessels and life jacket violations. Those safety violations can have negative consequences if you don’t follow them,” said Portteus.
Colorado law says if you’re 12 years old or younger, you must wear a life jacket on the water. But, the rangers still recommend everyone wear one, especially in bad weather conditions.
For their quick thinking and heroic actions, Herndon and Portteus were nominated for a life-saving award. According to CPW, the award is given to rangers who provide exceptional care that could potentially save someone’s life.
The award they're nominated for is given to rangers who provide exceptional care that could potentially save someone’s life.
