SEATTLE — Rescue swimmers and divers with the Seattle Fire Department began a search Sunday afternoon for a missing paddleboarder who was seen falling into the water in the Lake Washington Ship Canal and then did not resurface.
The paddleboarder reportedly went missing in an area of the ship canal west of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and near the Salmon Bay Bridge for trains, the Seattle Times reported.
Before 5 p.m. Sunday, “we received a 911 call of a person on a paddleboarder who was witnessed going under and not surfacing,” said Fire Department spokesperson Kristin Tinsley.
The department sent two rescue swimmers, two rescue divers, a crew in a fireboat and a rescue dog to find the paddleboarder. Rescue dogs can sometimes catch a person’s scent from shore, Tinsley said. The Seattle Police Department’s harbor patrol unit also responded.