TEAM CAll OUTs Index

2005 Call-outs: 13

2006 Call-outs: 8

2007 Call-outs: 6

2008 Call-outs: 16

2009 Call-outs: 9

2010 Call-outs: 7

2011 Call-outs:7

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Past press coverage

By Thomas Gallick | Staff Writer 04/17/2011
Portage County emergency personnel are searching for a man missing after a boat sank in the Kirwan Reservoir at West Branch State Park Sunday night.
The Charlestown Fire Department received a call around 7 p.m. from a 14-year-old boy who swam to shore after the boat he was riding in submerged.
“The young man walked to (the boat launch) and got a cell phone,” Charlestown Fire Chief Rick Grund said. “He told us his dad and a friend were out in the boat.”
Grund said the department treated the boy and transported him to a hospital.
Soon after the search began, a civilian in a boat found one of the men in the water.
“A young man out here in a boat found the other victim floating in the water,” Grund said. “The third victim is unaccounted for.”
Grund said he could not say for certain if the man found floating in the water was dead.
Rescue boats and a member of the Streetsboro Dive Rescue team searched the lake until dusk. At 8:45 p.m., a LifeFlight helicopter was brought in to make use of its searchlight.
Tom Decker, investigator for Portage County Coroner’s office, said there were no reports of any deaths related to the incident as of 10 p.m. Sunday night.
Portage County Sheriff David Doak said the search for the missing man was called off around 10:30 p.m.
He said the search would resume this morning.

RAVENNA, Ohio - Crews have recovered the body of a second man after a boat capsized Sunday night in Portage County.

The body of Meshari Alusurhi, a 23-year-old University of Akron student from Saudi Arabia, was pulled from the Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir at West Branch State Park around 2 p.m. Monday.

According to park authorities, there were three people in the boat when it was overturned by high winds and waves at about 7 p.m. Sunday. The park manager said 13-year-old Michael Raresheid was able to swim a to shore and run a half-mile to flag down help. He was treated for hypothermia at Robinson Memorial Hospital and released.

Raresheid told rescue teams he made it because he learning from watching survival shows that he needed to strip off his clothes to swim.

The 13-year-old's father, George Rareshied, 46, of Uniontown, was found clinging to a log in the water. Park officials said he was unresponsive and taken to Robinson Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Several Portage County departments continued to search the water for Alusurhi on Monday, until crews pulled his body from the water. He was found underwater in a popular fishing area where a lot of trees and limbs are in the water. Crews used underwater cameras with Sonar technology to find his body.

Police said Alusurhi was the boyfriend of Raresheid's daughter. He has no known next of kin from the United States, but friends from school were at the scene to identify his body. The Portage County Sheriff’s Office is trying to contact his family in Saudi Arabia.

None of the boat’s occupants were wearing lifejackets and the water temperature was around 47 degrees.

PCWRT searches the Cuyahoga for a possible victim.

KENT, OH (WOIO) - Kent Fire and Rescue along with the Portage County Water Rescue Team searched for a body in the Cuyahoga River for about three hours Wednesday afternoon.

Nothing was located and the search was called off just after 6 PM.

According to Kent Fire, several high school students on a schools bus claim to have seen a black man, in black clothes floating down the river while the bus was crossing the Main St. bridge.

Officials did say some clothing was found in some downed trees, but it is unclear if that was what witnesses saw or not.

The Fire Dept. plans to go back out on Thursday and conduct a foot search along the river bank

By Diane Smith | staff writer
The banks of the swollen Cuyahoga River in Kent were scoured to no avail Wednesday afternoon after a school bus driver and students on the bus reported a man floating in the river.
Capt. John Tosko of the Kent Fire Department said crews from the Portage County Water Rescue Team and eight fire departments spent hours searching the river.
“A school bus was coming across the Main Street Bridge when multiple witnesses saw a black man being carried down the river, arms flailing, fighting against the current,” he said. The same story, he said, was being told by multiple students on the bus and the bus driver.
Tosko said police interviewed the witnesses as firefighters scoured the river and the banks searching for the man. The search ran from the Main Street Bridge west to Middlebury Road in Kent. Munroe Falls and Stow fire departments also were alerted.
The crews, staged at Tannery Park in Kent, searched from before 4 p.m. until 5:45 but were unable to find the man. Searchers did find an article of clothing in the area of the river near Heritage Park.
Tosko said the search was called off at nightfall because after that point, it would be unlikely that anyone would have survived.
The water in the rapid-flowing Cuyahoga River was 35 degrees, Tosko said, and if anyone was in the water, that person probably would not have been able to survive for two hours. He expressed hope that the man got out of the water on his own.

05/25/2010 Drowning in Suffield: Victim fishing at Mogadore Reservoir

By Dave O’Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

SUFFIELD — An Akron man drowned while fishing Tuesday at the Mogadore Reservoir, the second such death this year at the popular Portage County fishing spot.

According to the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, John L. Bickerstaff, 58, and a friend were fishing at the reservoir since about 9 a.m., starting on the east side of S.R. 43 near the boat ramp. The duo split up, and Bickerstaff was last seen crossing S.R. 43 to the west side.

The friend later went to check on Bickerstaff but found only his fishing gear and alerted authorities. The Portage County Sheriff’s Office received a call at approximately 10:34 a.m. that Bickerstaff was missing, said detective Lt. Greg Johnson.

The Portage County Dive Team was called out at 10:50 a.m. After an hour-long search, Bickerstaff’s body was recovered at 11:41 a.m. from about 8 feet of water, Johnson said.

Bickerstaff’s body was taken to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

Fishing the reservoir from the steep, grass-covered western shore of S.R. 43 is prohibited, and red signs reading “No fishing or wading from this shore” are clearly posted.

S.R. 43 was closed to traffic between Saxe Road and Randolph Road for approximately an hour while Bickerstaff’s body was recovered.

The Suffield Fire Department, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Brimfield police and the Ohio Highway Patrol assisted the sheriff’s office with traffic control and the investigation.

The last drowning at the reservoir, which straddles Brimfield and Suffield townships, was April 1. A 75-year-old Akron man died in that incident.

Portage divers a team of support 07/20/2009

After Searching for a sunken float that simulates a victim, Streetsboro firefighter Don Bobek surfaces as soon as he finds his target.

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

It’s pitch black. Lt. Dave Moore of the Kent Fire Department can’t see a thing and his oxygen is limited.

And, like so many other times, he has been loaded with lead weights and plunged to the bottom of a murky body of water. But as the commander of the Portage County Water Rescue Team, Moore sets the example for its 60 members and continues sticking his hands into the muck searching for evidence or, in some cases, a body.

That familiar scene is one Moore has repeated during six calls this year — including last week’s evidence recovery at a Streetsboro golf course — and on a total 19 calls in 2008 with the county’s dive team.

“That’s where our work is done, in the muck at the bottom,” Moore said. “It’s all black water. It goes lights out ... so the divers go by feel.”

Recently, the dive team expanded its size with 12 new members. The team originally consisted of personnel from five departments, but now 13 police, fire and medical agencies throughout the county are involved with the team’s operations.

The agencies throughout the county that support the team with members, equipment and other aid are: Kent fire and police departments; the Mantua-Shalersville fire department; Streetsboro fire; Ravenna Township fire; Charlestown fire; Brimfield police; Atwater fire, Deerfield fire; Aurora fire; the Portage County Sheriff’s Office and Robinson Memorial Hospital.

A tremendous amount of manpower and equipment is used every time the dive team responds. On an average call, between 15 and 20 divers and assist personnel respond.

“Which is phenomenal for a county team,” Moore said. “We definitely appreciate all the support from our individual departments and department heads, the trustees of the townships and the managers of the cities.

“We bring a lot of manpower to the scene,” he said. “We get a lot of things done very safely.”

Earlier this year, the dive team helped rescue two kayakers on the Cuyahoga River in Kent and responded to West Branch State Park to search for an Akron man who drowned. Last year, of the team’s 19 responses seven involved vehicles in the water. Three of those were close calls with people getting out of their vehicle just before it sank beneath the surface, Moore said.

The Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir at West Branch is notorious for tree stumps and root systems that create a hazardous risk for team members. To aid the divers, when searching under water they conduct their sweeps at the end of a rope equipped with a hard radio line.

“Communication keeps the diver focused,” Moore said. “Stress levels go down. Communication is invaluable when we’re looking for a body because I haven’t met a diver yet who likes looking for a body under water.”

The equipment and manpower comes at a cost. The price tag to outfit a diver today from head to toe is roughly $7,000. A diver’s equipment includes a full face mask, a vulcanized rubber dry suit, a 3,000 pound air tank, lead weights, buoyancy compensators and communication lines.

And the equipment does have a life cycle. Currently, member safety administrators are trying to prioritize the needs of the team and determine possible funding methods.

Portage County Sheriff David Doak said the regional effort can make funding such an operation a little easier.

“It’s another one of those things individual agencies can no longer support on their own,” Doak said. “So it’s a very valuable resource when people put that kind of effort together. It’s a lot of team work, but when we collaborate with them it makes life a lot easier.”

The water rescue team trains once a month in a variety of scenarios, including cold-water dives, night operations and vehicle recoveries. Training exercises, like the real-world responses, include the member law enforcement agencies.

“Having the law enforcement component is invaluable especially in evidence recovery,” Moore said. “Any time we have a body recovery that’s always a crime scene until proven otherwise.”

Tragedy at West Branch: Akron man drowns in Kirwan Reservoir

05/01/2009

By Diane Smith and Matt FredmonskyRecord-Courier staff writers

An 18-year-old Akron man is dead after drowning at West Branch State Park Friday afternoon.

Portage County Sheriff David Doak said the incident could have quickly become a double drowning because the victim, who could not swim, tried to pull one of the girls he was swimming with under the water.

David Stoneking and two female teenagers were swimming at the state park’s beach, near the border of Charlestown and Paris townships, when Stoneking disappeared beneath the surface of the Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir at about 1:30 p.m.

John Wilder, manager of West Branch State Park, released a statement saying divers from the Portage County Water Rescue Team had located Stoneking’s body in 22 feet of water at about 5 p.m.

Witnesses said the teens were trying to swim from a point near the beach across a shallow cove to another point on the water’s edge. The area is not a designated swimming area and has a steep drop off — something that Stoneking might not have known when he went into the water, Doak said.

“He was pulling her under,” Doak said. “It was fortunate that she got away. As bad as it was, it could have been a double drowning.”

After escaping from Stoneking’s grasp, the female swam to shore and flagged down another car in the parking lot, whose occupants called for help.

Tom Decker, an investigator with the Portage County Coroner’s Office, said an autopsy on Stoneking would be performed by the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Decker said the water temperature was between 50 and 60 degrees. It was raining hard at the time, Doak said.

Doak said the girls probably were not aware that Stoneking could not swim.

Authorities searched by boat first before sending three divers into the water.

The man’s family had been notified and was en route to the park by 3:30 p.m.

Metro Life Flight landed at the park at about 2 p.m. and was on standby until the helicopter left at 3:30.

Akron man drowns in Berlin Reservoir 20-year-old was swimming in Deerfield 07/20/08

By Nick Poorbaugh
The (Alliance) Review
DEERFIELD " A morning swim quickly turned to tragedy when a 20-year-old Akron man drowned Sunday at Berlin Reservoir.
Portage County Sheriff Duane Kaley identified the victim as 20-year-old Matthew Shiplitt of Akron. Deerfield is about 15 miles southeast of Ravenna.
According to Kaley and members of the Portage County Water Rescue Team (PCWRT), Shiplitt had been swimming with friends at Philabaun's Hidden Cove Resort at 1115 Edgewater Blvd. when he began struggling and disappeared into the water. Edgewater Boulevard is located across from the Deerfield Cemetery in the southeast portion of the township.
Authorities said the first emergency call came around 10 a.m. to the Deerfield Fire Department and the water rescue team had divers in the water within an hour. Despite the speed of response, efforts to locate Shiplitt were unsuccessful.
Deerfield Fire Capt. Brian Allison said Shiplitt was swimming on the western shore of the reservoir near the campground at Philabaun's Hidden Cove Resort when he disappeared below the surface.
"They were trying to swim across the little cove that was there," Allison said. "And they noticed he was lagging behind. They tried to go back and help him and he went under."
Divers located and recovered Shiplitt's body several hours later.
"(The search) was one of the best efforts the Portage County rescue team has put together," said Lt. Dave Moore, a Kent firefighter and commander of the PCWRT. "Considering the location and remote access to the campground, we responded quickly. We got there within the "golden hour' but we couldn't find him."
Ultimately all seven departments that make up the PCWRT "Aurora, Kent, Mantua-Shalersville, Streetsboro, Suffield and the Ravenna Township fire departments and the Portage County Sheriff's Office "responded to the scene. Also responding were the Deerfield Fire Department, Berlin Township Fire Department, Mahoning County Sheriff's Office, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Summit County Dive Team.
"This was a very involved operation," said Moore. "We have had 11 calls so far this year and none as remote as this. Many people don't realize how many bodies of water we have in the county. A lot of training goes on to be able to handle situations like this."
Kaley said Shiplitt's body was taken to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office, where an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Record-Courier staff writers Marci Piltz and Matt Fredmonsky contributed to this report.

Drowning victim in Mantua ID'd Is 34-year-old Peru native

By Don Jovich, 07/13/08 Record-Courier staff writer

MANTUA TOWNSHIP -- A 34-year-old man who died as a result of a drowning incident Friday has been identified as Zavier Quintano Quispe of Peru. Portage County Sheriff Duane Kaley said the victim had remained unidentified by the Geauga County Coroner, pending notification of the family. No further information was released Saturday, according to Fire Chief Matt Benner with the Mantua-Shalersville Fire Department. The drowning incident occurred at a pond at Stachowski Alpacas, a 150-plus acre farm located on S.R. 44 in Mantua Township. Benner said after receiving the call at 5:59 p.m., emergency crews made several attempts to locate the victim with assistance from shore personnel. According to firefighters, the man was swimming in the pond with three co-workers when he went underwater and failed to surface. Divers from the Portage County Water Rescue Team discovered and retrieved the victim approximately 40 minutes after the initial call. The man was taken to University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center in Chardon, where he was pronounced dead. The water rescue team consists of divers from the Aurora, Kent, Mantua-Shalersville, Ravenna Township, Streetsboro and Suffield fire departments and the sheriff's office. This was their eighth call-out this year.

Two-car crash ends with car in Kent pond Driver failed to stop after Fairchild crash 07/03/2008

By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
A bizarre incident that began with a two-car crash on Fairchild Avenue in Kent Thursday afternoon ended with a driver being transported to a nearby hospital, a car submerged in a pond and a hefty landscaping bill for a nearby housing development.
Police said the incident began on Fairchild Avenue just west of Adrian Court, when a black 2006 or 2007 Ford Mustang and a tan 1998 Ford Taurus SE collided.
Instead of stopping, however, the Taurus continued for several hundred yards onto the south side of Fairchild. The car struck a wooden sign for The Lakes at Franklin Mills housing development, running over several shrubs and a pine tree, destroying part of a low stone wall with "The Lakes at Franklin Mills" on it and continued at least another 100 yards before going off the north side of Fairchild into a pond.
A passerby witnessed the accident, got into the water and rescued the female driver of the Taurus from the car, Kent police Lt. John Altomare said. He also said police are continuing to investigate the incident, as the driver of the Taurus couldn't be interviewed before paramedics transported her to an area hospital.
"We don't know why she didn't stop" when the collision first occurred, he said.
As residents of nearby neighborhoods watched behind police caution tape, members of the Portage County Water Rescue Team and employees of Plaza Towing in Kent pulled the algae- and mud-covered Taurus from the pond.
Several residents of The Lakes at Franklin Mills said they had fought for a stoplight at the intersection of Fairchild Avenue, Adrian Avenue and Stonewater Drive, but were told by the city of Kent that their development and the intersection did not qualify.
According to the results of a traffic study performed by the city and posted June 23 on City Manager Dave Ruller's blog, www.kent360.com, 12 hours of traffic counting by the city over two days in May led an engineer to suggest the retaining wall and landscape mounding " the very same struck by the Taurus Thursday " be lowered.
Traffic was detoured for at least an hour from Fairchild Avenue to Silver Meadows Boulevard and Majors Lane as a result of the wreck and recovery efforts Thursday.

A 3 car crash kills one, sends car onto the water

By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer 05/22/08
A three-car crash on S.R. 14 killed an Industry Road resident, injured the two other drivers, sending one into the West Branch reservoir, and closed the road for the better part of the day Thursday.
The accident occurred at about 7:27 a.m., about two miles southeast of Ravenna where the corners of Charlestown, Edinburg, Ravenna Township and Rootstown meet.
A semi carrying dry concrete powder was eastbound when a car driven by Mary L. French, 78, of Edinburg, failed to yield at a stop sign at Industry Road and S.R. 14 and pulled out in front of the truck, according to the Ravenna Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Truck driver Walter Jones, 44, of Cleveland, swerved and attempted to stop his truck, which was carrying 25,000 pounds of dry cement powder, and collided with French's vehicle.
French most likely was killed on impact, according to Ravenna Township Fire Chief Steve Bosso.
The collision almost sent the truck and the wreckage of French's Ford into the Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir at West Branch State Park. Meanwhile, a north-bound Jeep Cherokee driven by Peggy Griffith, 53, of Deerfield, swerved to avoid the crash and ended up in the reservoir.
Randy Harper of Bath was driving in a second cement truck behind Jones when he saw the wreck ahead of him. A retired police officer, Harper said he and Jones were eastbound on S.R. 14 toward Interstate 76 when he saw the first truck "go left, then go right" and then saw a "cloud of dust."
Harper said he didn't know what had happened until he turned onto Industry Road, stopped his truck, got out and "heard the lady (Griffith) screaming."
"She was screaming for help," he said.
Harper said he climbed over the guardrail and saw Griffith in her sinking car. He had taken off his jacket and was prepared to dive in, but was able to help pull her out of the water. He said she had a minor head injury and a broken leg.
Bosso said the Edinburg Fire Department transported Griffith to Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna. A Ravenna City Fire Department ambulance took Jones there as well. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Bosso said his department originally received a request for the Portage County Water Rescue Team and was on the scene by 8 a.m.
"When we got the call for the dive team, it was "car in the water, person out of the car,'" Bosso said. "I pulled up and thought "Wow, this is a lot different than I thought it was.'"
Jones' truck was "right on top of the Ravenna Township sign," Bosso said, but the area is near the border of four townships. He said he and Edinburg Fire Chief Tim Paulus took command of the scene, which crews were still working into the afternoon as wreckers cleaned up debris.
A large crane from Falls and Stebbins Automotive in Mantua was used to lift the nearly unrecognizable remains of the wrecked car onto a flatbed trailer. Floating booms were placed in the reservoir by hazmat crews to contain any spilled oil from the vehicles.
A total of about 50 personnel from local and county agencies eventually responded to the crash, Bosso said. Other fire departments responding with personnel or vehicles included Kent, Palmyra, Ravenna city, Ravenna Township, Rootstown and Streetsboro, Suffield.

Water Rescue team pulls car from West Branch Divers practice technique 04/08/08

By Matt Fredmonsky
Record-Courier staff writer
Members of the Portage County Water Rescue Team pulled a fully submerged Hyundai Elantra from the bottom of the Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir at West Branch State Park Tuesday afternoon.
The car had been there since a Feb. 24 incident inch which police say a Ravenna man deliberately steered his wife's car onto the ice before it crashed through, sank and came to rest on its roof.
The owner of the car watched the training exercise from the lake shore as divers bobbed up and down about 350 yards away near a cove on the north side. The car's owner said her husband, whom she is now legally separated from, had the car for several days before it ended up in the frigid water.
Portage County Sheriff's Deputy Mark Millhoff oversaw the dive training Tuesday. Millhoff said the purpose of the monthly training exercise was to remove the car from the lake.
"So it doesn't cause a boating or ecological hazard," Millhoff said. "This one just happened to be out here so we could incorporate the vehicle. We like to train as realistically as possible for all scenarios."
The car came to rest in about 12 feet of water. The dive team performed two dives in February the day it sank to determine if anyone was trapped inside. After the car was confirmed empty, the team placed a buoy and took GPS measurements to insure the vehicle could be found after the snow melted.
The team spent all morning preparing to raise the car to the surface with a 1,000-pound air lift bag so two boats could pull the car to the shore at the west boat ramp off Rock Spring Road.
Sunshine and warm temperatures greeted members of the Kent, Mantua-Shalersville, Ravenna Township, Streetsboro, Suffield and Aurora fire departments along with the Portage County Sheriffs Office and Brimfield Police Department members who took part in the training.
Dave Moore, the dive team's commander, said not all the divers present took part in rigging the airbag to the car.
"One diver on a rope line can cover more area quicker and use less air, which is important, than multiple divers," Moore said.
The additional divers, along with other department members, were on hand to provide safety support in case of an emergency.
The car emerged just before noon and broke the surface three times after the airbag was inflated. It was then towed to shore near the boat ramp where Fall and Stebbins Automotive of Mantua used tow-truck winches to right the car and pull it from the water.
Frank Tomaino, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources park officer for West Branch, said the car is the third pulled from the lake that had been driven in from the west boat ramp.

Teen drowns in Rootstown

Don Jovich

August 1, 2007

By Don Jovich

Record-Courier staff writer

ROOTSTOWN -- A 15-year-old Cleveland boy drowned Tuesday in Sandy Lake near Tallmadge Road and the 2000 block of Sandy Lake Drive.

Portage County Sheriff Duane Kaley said three teenage boys were riding in a small paddle boat on the lake shortly before 7 p.m. when the incident occurred.

"The boys were done eating and were out boating," Kaley said. "They decided to swim back to shore and unfortunately, one of the boys did not know how to swim."

Kaley said the victim, along with other family members, were visiting a Sandy Lake Drive residence where the fatality occurred.

Authorities did not identify the victim.

According to witnesses, the boys were playing on the boat and dove off of it and one of the boys did not surface.

The other boys called for help and several nearby neighbors also assisted in an attempted rescue.

Witnesses said the boy had been under water for 15 minutes at that point.

Tom Decker, chief investigator with the Portage County Coroner's Office said emergency workers arrived and transported the boy to Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna where he was later pronounced dead.

The teen's name has not been released pending notification of family members, Kaley said.

911 dispatchers received a call at 7 p.m. reporting a possible drowning.

Members of the Portage County Water Rescue Team responded and had two dive boats in the water during the rescue attempt.

The dive team includes personnel from the Aurora, Kent, Mantua-Shalersville, Suffield, Streetsboro and Ravenna Township fire departments and the Portage County Sheriff's Office.

This is the fourth drowning incident in Portage County since May 26.

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