Santa Cruz lifeguards talk about their wharf collapse rescue Monday
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Lifeguards Lt. Sam Hofmann and Lt. Isaiah Mullen were the two men who rescued the construction inspection crew members after the end of the Santa Cruz Wharf collapsed Monday.
They said that they were called in to work Monday ahead of the large swell along the coast.
"We came in knowing that as the day went on, the swell was just going to build," said Lt. Mullen. "It was going to be one of the biggest swells that we've had on our coast and in recent times."
Moments leading up to the "wharf incident," Lt. Mullen says that they had two skis in the water, one near Steamer's Lane and up the coast, and the other near Cowell's Beach.
"At the time the wharf collapsed, we were on the Cowell's side about one quarter of the way to the end of the wharf just getting ready to do another patrol," said Lt. Mullen. "That's when something alerted me to look out at the end of the wharf, which I believe was the cracking of the pilings."
He said that as he and Lr. Hofmann looked out at the end of the wharf, they could see it collapsing into the ocean.
"Once we both came to the realization of what was truly going on, we started to head that way," continued Lt. Mullen. "I got my fins on just in case there was somebody in the water that I needed to rescue."
Lt. Mullen said that as they approached the debris, they could see the "true scope" of what had happened and the amount of wharf that was in the water. He also said that's when they noticed there were two men standing on top of the wreckage waving the lifeguards down for help.
"We went around to the other side, which is where the two individuals were--they were separated at that point, one closer to the pier and the other towards the end," he said. "Because of the amount of debris, Lt. Hofmann came in, dropped me off from the ski and I swam in to get that individual while he went to get the other who was more accessible by the PWC."
Lt. Mullen said that as he swam towards the person on the floating debris, he had a hard time determining if the structure would stay together due to the high swell.
"I just wanted to get the individual out as quickly as possible," he said. "Unfortunately the individual had to get wet... the ski couldn't pull up alongside the debris."
Lt. Mullen said that despite some struggles pulling the person out due to high waves, he was able to use the tube to get the person out of the water. He also said that they heard reports of a third person who fell into the water, so they went back to go locate that person.
"We started looking through the wreckage for this individual, doing patrol and looking alongside the wharf just to see if anybody had made it underneath," said Lt. Mullen. "Eventually, they had reported over the radio that the third person was ok, so we ended our operations of that incident."
"We were just off the wharf around lifeguard headquarters when my deckhand who was kind of keeping an eye on the outside--watching for waves that we would need to punch through--said, 'I'm pretty sure the end of the wharf just fell in'," said Lt. Sam Hofmann. "We buzzed past the wharf maintenance place and I said, 'I think you just lost about 30 feet off the end of the stick.' It was pretty surreal."
