Police and firefighters saved the life of a Columbus woman who jumped off the Third Street bridge into the East Fork White River in downtown Columbus just as a police officer arrived to check on her.
A Columbus police officer took video of the scene as Columbus firefighter Daniel Pinnow, wearing an ice rescue suit, swam through a swift current to intercept the woman, who was bobbing up and down in the water and beginning to show the effects of hypothermia in the 32-degree temperature.
“It was a calculated risk,” Columbus Fire Department Lt. Christopher Jordan said of putting Pinnow in the river near the Water Street boat ramp at 8:53 a.m. Friday. “We risk a life for a life.”
The rescue operation took about seven minutes from the time the woman jumped from the Third Street bridge, which has traffic heading westbound out of the city, and floated between the two bridges and through the low-head dam, before Pinnow was able to grab her in the middle of the river near the boat ramp.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Pinnow said it was difficult to swim against the current, and although he thought he was moving through the water, the water was actually bringing the woman to him.
When Pinnow grasped her in the water, he told the woman that he had her now and the two of them were on their way out of the water.
“She went limp, she wasn’t moving at all,” Pinnow said of the moment when the two were pulled back out of the water by an ice rescue rope manned by Columbus firefighter Eric Green, Jordan and other first responders, including Sheriff Matt Myers in street clothes.
The woman, who was taken by ambulance to Columbus Regional Hospital, never lost consciousness, Pinnow said. He could tell she wasn’t responding and hypothermia, which also affects the use of an individual’s arms and legs, was taking over.
Green, Jordan and Pinnow work out of Fire Station 3, but happened to be at Fire Station 1 downtown on Jackson Street for their annual CPR certification, Jordan said.
When the call came in, Engine 3 was the only engine in service as others had gone out-of-service for training, so that engine was dispatched first. Initially heading to the Third Street bridge, the firefighters detoured to Water Street after learning the woman had already gone past the low-head dam.
There was no question who would don the ice rescue suit and go in the water from the engine crew, Jordan explained. Pinnow, who joined the Columbus Fire Department in 2016 and has training in ice and swift water rescues, was assigned as the “tailboard” firefighter, a designation that goes back to when firefighters rode the rear bumper of a fire truck to fire scenes.
On a three-man engine, the “tailboard” goes into the water, Jordan explained.
Pinnow had the ice rescue suit on in about a minute, putting it on with help in the firetruck on the way to the river. A train was crossing the railroad tracks, but since the fire engine was on the east side of the river they were able to move quickly to Water Street.
The ice rescue rope was hooked to Pinnow as he entered the water at the boat ramp and he went out to intercept the woman and brought her to shore. It was Pinnow’s first emergency rescue of his firefighting career, although he said he has completed a great deal of training.
Jordan said there were risks in sending Pinnow into the water as the current was very dangerous, and if the ice suit would leak and fill with water, Pinnow’s life would be in danger, too. Since the rescue took place in 13- to 15-feet of water, there was the possibility of the rope snagging on debris underwater, which would have further endangered Pinnow.
The first responders had the woman out of the water and in the ambulance by 9:01 a.m., according to fire department records.
And although the rescue was quite an adrenaline rush for the fire crew, they then returned to Fire Station 1 to complete their CPR certifications, before returning to Station 3 before noon Friday.
The fire department credited Columbus police with keeping sight of the woman throughout the entire incident, which was critical to getting firefighters in place to rescue her.
Columbus police received a call from a passerby just before 8:53 a.m. about a woman on the bridge, and Officer John Velten was sent to do a welfare check on her, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman.
As Velten approached in his vehicle, she climbed up on the bridge railing and jumped into the river, Harris said. Velten then began directing police and firefighters, and the Indiana State Police, where they might be able to position themselves to reach her.
Columbus police attempted to use a “rope bag” that each officer carries in their cars, throwing it out to the woman seeking to have her grab it so they could pull her to shore, but that was unsuccessful, as the woman was floating in the middle of the river and continuing downstream.
At one point, the woman went underwater, but resurfaced as she continued moving downstream in the middle of the river, Harris said.
“The collaboration with Columbus police was crucial to the success of this effort,” Wilson said. “CPD did a great job of having eyes on the subject and traveled that river bank to keep eyes on her.”
Pinnow, 30, who lives in North Vernon with his wife MacKenzey, said he has wanted to be a firefighter all his life, and growing up in Columbus he wanted it to be the Columbus Fire Department.
“I didn’t want to be anywhere else,” he said.
Pinnow is unsure whether he will ever meet the woman who he saved, saying normally firefighters don’t get that opportunity.
“I knew I had to cut her off,” he said of swimming toward the woman as the current brought her closer in the middle of the river. “I knew it was a one-shot deal for me to catch her.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”See online” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Go to therepublic.com to watch video of the rescue of a woman who jumped off the Third Street bridge into the East Fort White River.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
