The Coast Guard rescued three people in a boat on the Columbia River that was taking on water near the Port of Vancouver early Saturday evening. One person jumped into the water and tried to swim back to save the boat.
A Coast Guard crew from Portland was on patrol when it came across two women and a man in their 40s on the boat at around 5:45 p.m. Saturday near the United Grain dock, according to Levi Read, public affairs specialist with the Coast Guard.
The Vancouver Fire Department was called to transport the three people, but when the man jumped off the boat, Coast Guard officials pulled him back aboard and brought the three to the former site of the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay, where they met a VFD emergency medical services crew.
Joe Spatz, a captain with the VFD, said the crew was called to medically evaluate one person, although he wasn’t sure which of the three it was. The person refused medical treatment and was released, Spatz said. Read added that no injuries were reported.
