Anchorage Daily News

A stroll to Fire Island across the mud flats off Kincaid Park on Tuesday evening sparked a frantic rescue effort that culminated when two teenagers were plucked from Cook Inlet waters as the rising tide swelled to chest-level in minutes.

The hour-long rescue effort ended with the two, both 16 and identified only as a boy and a girl, were pulled to safety in an Anchorage Fire Department boat and taken to the hospital.

The pair apparently started off from the beach at Kincaid, down the hill from the park Chalet and along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, Anchorage police Sgt. Mike Kerle said.

About 6:15 p.m., the teens got stranded about a mile offshore between the park and Fire Island and called 911 on a cell phone to report they were trapped by the fast-rising tide. They said they were surrounded by water.

"When they started the tide was out, and once the tide started coming back in they only made it about halfway back," fire department Battalion Chief Young Suenram said. "The water came up very fast on them. ... It rose from their hips to probably mid-chest within about 10, 15 minutes."

Bicyclist Roger Benedict, 53, was riding the trail just a few minutes after the teens apparently realized they were stuck. At that time, the stretch from beach to the teens was mostly mud and gravel, although he said it seemed like there was a 100-yard stretch of water they would have to cross on the way back.

"They were screaming for help and the woman said 'I'm almost stuck in the mud,' " Benedict said. "They were standing on a big, 200-yard gravel bar right out there about three-quarters of a mile."

He yelled back that he would go call for help and sped up to the Chalet, where someone else said help was already on the way.

According to firefighters, the water was about ankle deep when they got the call. Multiple units rushed to the scene, and they dispatched a helicopter with divers aboard to survey the scene, Suenram said.

The teens were ill-equipped for their trip, he said, and the water was rising fast. The fire department launched an inflatable vessel with divers aboard, and, guided by the helicopter, reached the teens, he said. Divers jumped in and pulled them from the water about an hour after the teens first called for help.

"It looks like they're all right, and I'm sure they're happy to be rescued," Kerle said.

The boat brought the youths to the Port of Anchorage, where an ambulance and one of their parents was waiting, Suenram said. They were transported to Providence Alaska Medical Center in stable condition, although possibly a little hypothermic, Battalion Chief Bridget Bushue said.

"Fire Island doesn't look that far away, but if you get caught with the tides or you get caught in the mud, you're taking your own life in your own hand," Suenram said. "If you're not somebody that knows what they're doing, it is not a good idea to go out on the mud flats."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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