Four fishermen had to be pulled from the Big River by rescue crews on Feb. 2 after the pontoon boat they were in became lodged on the Byrnesville dam. The victims were treated for hypothermia on the scene and released, Cedar Hill Fire Chief Mick Fischer said.
He said Cedar Hill Fire Protection District crews arrived on the scene at 2:09 p.m. and found the men stranded about 30 feet from the shore.
“(The victims) were out fishing above the dam; I’m not exactly sure how they ended up in the dam, but they did,” he said. “When we got there, they were actually off the boat, standing on a dry spot of the dam. We deployed throw bags to them and pulled them back to the shore from the dam with a rope from the throw bag.”
Fischer said the portion of the river the fishermen were stuck on had swift-moving currents, which likely would have swept them away if they attempted to swim to shore.
He said the crew got the bag wet before throwing it into the water to add a little weight to the bag and then held one end of the rope, which was about 50 to 75 feet long.
“It’s a lower-risk method we use because we don’t have to deploy boats; we don’t have to put our people in the water,” he said. “(The victims) were alert enough and capable enough to rescue them in that way. The last thing we’d want to do is get them halfway across and then they let go.”
The water division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol advised the owner of the boat to contact a recovery company to pull the pontoon out of the river, Fischer said.
The Big River Ambulance District and the High Ridge Fire Protection District helped with the call, he said.