Mutual Aid Search to Solano County

On May 15, 2003 Solano County requested mutual aid assistance for a search for a missing 20 year old female hiker near Monticello Dam at Lake Berryessa. Solano County had worked throughout the night and requested fresh seach management personnel from Contra Costa County SAR to assist with their continuing search efforts. Three team members from Contra Costa County responsed.

Team members arrived at the command post in the late afternoon. The command post was located at a vista point straddling the Solano-Napa county line on the downstream side of Monticello Dam, and was overlooked by tall canyon walls. Below the command post was Putah Creek.

The subject was a 20 year old despondent female. She and her family were very familiar with the area and had hiked its several trails together extensively in the past. Her abandoned vehicle had been located at a trailhead near the command post, on the Solano side.

By the time we arrived, Solano SAR had decided that they needed more search dogs (both trailing and air scent). When they found out that two of our members each had an air scent dog with them, they decided to dispatch them to air-scenting assignments. We were going to be airlifted by CHP's H-30 helicopter to a ridgetop and work our way down with the dogs. However, the beginning of our assignment was delayed because communications with H-30 were difficult, and H-30 had to break from the search to refuel.

While waiting for H-30, Team 2, a Solano groundpounder team, reported that they had located the subject and transmitted her coordinates via radio. She was conscious but in need of medical assistance and of a carry-out.

The Solano overhead personnel asked one of our members to be part of a rapid medical response with members of their team. Medical kits were quickly loaded into an off-road-capable truck and driven to the trailhead near the subject. The trail proved to be inaccessible to off-road vehicles, so the medical team repsonded on foot. By then, Vacaville Fire Protection District units were starting to arrive and joined the responding medical team. The subject and Team 2 were located on a fairly steep slope off the trail.

The fire captain took responsibility for the subject's medical assessment. She was alert and oriented in the sense that she was able to provide reasonable answers the standard questions about person, place time and events. However, her speech was slurred and she had an incomplete recollection of the night's events. She was clearly unable to walk uassisted. The captain decided to do a two-rescuer carry-out down the gentler portion of the slope. A Vacaville Fire Protection District rescue team arrived with a litter. The patient was loaded into the litter and carried out to the trailhead, where an ambulance was waiting.

Larger photos can be viewed by clicking on the smaller photos below

SAR and fire department personal load the subject into a litter for further carryout.

Carry out.

The media interview the Solano SAR team that found the subject.

The incident was located right on a jurisdictional boundary.