A middle-aged man was rescued from frigid waters near Petersburg on the night of April 7.
Franz Schonberg was walking his dog near the ferry terminal after sunset when he heard someone yelling in the Wrangell Narrows, between Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands. Schonberg, a local volunteer firefighter, launched his skiff and went to investigate, searching the dark, fast-moving waters for the person calling out for help.
Around the same time, local resident Dr. James Pizzadili was walking along the waterfront bike path when he, too, heard the yelling. Pizzadili called 9-1-1 after realizing the person was in the water, being swept south by the tide.
“He was moving faster than I could walk,” Pizzadili said, noting he couldn’t see anything in the darkness and could only follow the sound of the yelling. “I tried to call out some encouragement —hold on, help is coming— because, you know, people don’t last very long in the cold water.”
Several local agencies responded to the call at about 8:30 p.m. — local police, Alaska State Troopers, and Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD), EMS, and search and rescue teams.
Schonberg located the man and pulled him out of the water. More responders arrived in a Petersburg Borough security boat around the same time, according to PVFD spokesman Dave Berg.
They began treating the man for hypothermia on the way to South Harbor, where he was transferred from the boat into an ambulance and brought to Petersburg Medical Center. Berg said the man was later medevaced to Anchorage for further treatment.
According to Berg, responders learned that the man was visiting Petersburg to work on a local project. He had set out for Kupreanof Island from the seaplane float on a borrowed kayak and ended up in the water. Berg said the man could have been in the water between 20 and 30 minutes, and fortunately, he was wearing a float coat. The whereabouts of the roughly 8-foot blue kayak were unknown as of the following afternoon.
Berg said the rescue response went smoothly, but the situation could have turned out differently if nobody had been around to hear the man’s call for help.
“It’s real lucky that somebody was out taking a walk,” Berg said. “It could’ve been really tragic.”
He added that kayaking alone at night is “probably not a good idea.”
Berg said PVFD encourages preparedness when adventuring alone: have proper equipment, experience, and let someone know where you’re going.
