Stranded teens ride Skamokawa logger's loader to safety
Thursday, December 6, 2007 7:59 AM PST
By Erik Olson and Thacher Schmid
Printable version
E-mail this articleA Skamokawa logger rescued three teenagers stranded on the Foster Road Bridge by a logjam and rising waters in Wahkiakum County Tuesday night.
Jeff Baldwin, 61, was clearing debris with a log loader near the bridge when he spotted a boy and two girls who had walked on the bridge and were blocked from leaving by the rising waters, Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Raedyn Grasseth said Wednesday..
Baldwin, who works for Jerry Debriae Logging Co., said the water had risen so fast the children hadn't anticipated being cut off from escape at both ends.
"They probably would have had to spend the night," Baldwin said.
Instead, Baldwin loaded the three children on his loader with a 40-foot boom, then hauled them to safety. He said he never learned their names, but they enjoyed the ride.
Grasseth said the incident was never formally reported to the sheriff's office, and she called Baldwin's good deed an inspiring story in the midst of a week of the treacherous flooding throughout the Pacific Northwest.
"Thank goodness people like that will actually help out," she said.
But to Baldwin, who's been a logger since 1968, the decision to help was a no-brainer.
"I didn't think it was any big deal," he said. "They were just having a ball riding on that big machine."
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