Early Sunday, Seattle firefighters and police swarmed the Duwamish River beneath the West Seattle Bridge after an abandoned vehicle turned up high on the span. The sighting kicked off a full water-rescue response, with crews in boats sweeping the river while officers searched the shoreline and the underside of the bridge following a report that someone may have jumped. As of the latest early-morning updates, responders had not found anyone in the water or on land.
Dispatchers sent marine and land units to the scene just before 7:40 a.m., and officers were soon reported searching under the bridge after the abandoned vehicle was discovered on the eastbound shoulder near the crest. The car had been spotted at least an hour earlier and is believed to have been driven by a 24-year-old woman, according to the West Seattle Blog.
How Seattle Fire responds to water calls
The Seattle Fire Department fields fireboats, rescue boats and dive-trained technical teams that handle emergencies on the city’s waterways. For reports of a person in the water, it typically dispatches a mix of marine and land units so crews can hit the scene from multiple angles. Station 5 and other marine units can stage in Elliott Bay or along the Duwamish approach while technical teams manage shoreline and underwater searches, according to the Seattle Fire Department.
What remains unconfirmed
City and police spokespeople had not released an official statement while the searches were still underway. Neighborhood reporting indicated that searchers had not located anyone by 7:51 a.m. and that crews were still working the shoreline and riverbank. Those timeline details, along with the initial vehicle report, were included in live updates from the West Seattle Blog.
Help and resources…