July 18, 2009 I was with a group of friends, at Lake Comanche in the Day Use Area. The group of people I was with were a combination of: an out of County Deputy Sheriff, 3 members of Amador County Fire Department, an out of County Life Guard, and out of county EMT. Also in our group was a member of Amador County Canine Search and Rescue Department, who just happened to have the rescue dog at the lake.

Suddenly an man was screaming for help in such a way the mere sound made me want to cry. Some one who was swimming and had gone under. He was not coming back up. Everyone with rescue training jumped into action immediately and went into the water. The Dog's trainer sent back for the rescue dog, to have her life vest placed on her so she could swim out to look for the missing man. People had to be told to leave the dog alone and not to call her so she could catch up to her trainer. Fire Department Rescuers and the dog's owner told every one to turn off the motors on their boats and skies, so they could ensue in a search pattern. Fish and game arrived in their rescue boat, and a medivac helicopter circled the area.

The local fire Department was sent to the scene for a MVA, therefore totally unprepared for a missing swimmer. The Dog and trainer took control of the area and after a bit of time the dog started biting the water in one specific area, as to indicate where the man would be located. The bottom of the water was full of a great deal of green growth.  

When the Amador County Sheriffs' Deputies arrived on scene and watched for what seemed a long time, told everyone who was not called to the scene by the Sheriffs' Office to clear the area even though they knew everyone was trained to be searching for the missing man. The Deputies were told the information they had gathered from family members and what they had discovered with-in the time line of the search.

I have been told the drowning victim was found near where the dog was indicating she found the victim. It had been over an hour of searching. The dog was very tired from swimming searching doing her job, merely to be kicked off of the scene by the very people who call her to search for people in Amador County. Under normal circumstances the Search and Rescue Dive Team would at this point been called to locate the missing swimmer if the Sheriff's Office had called in the Dog Rescue Team..

I do not know why the Sheriff's Office told everyone to leave who was involved in the search turned rescue, who give their time to help those in need, whether it be, MVA, Home accidents, FIRE, Elder accidents,Heart attacks no matter how minimal, every time someone calls 911 our Volunteer Firemen and Women are paged, they help 24/7.

What I do know for a fact, is that no one told all of the people who were there for a day of R and R to interrupt a day off and help some one in need. And I give massive credit to Canine Rescue. She was doing what she lives to do, find people in danger.