Rain challenges firefighters

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Rains trapped a man on the Los Angeles River and caused a mudslide in north Glendale Monday that forced a family to evacuate their Glenmore Boulevard home.

A 40-year-old man had to be airlifted off of a small island in the middle of the river after getting stuck there during a downpour Monday morning, Glendale Fire Capt. Steven Parrish said.

Paul Haynes, who had been living on the island, became trapped after rains caused water in the river to rise and move at a swift speed, Parrish said.

“He was on the island and he looked dry at the time, but he looked upset and he looked like he didn’t know what to do,” said Glendale resident Susan Corp, who lives a few hundred feet from the river on Paula Avenue.

Glendale, Burbank and Los Angeles firefighters enacted a swift-water rescue at about 10:30 a.m., Parrish said.

Firefighters used an aerial ladder to give Haynes a flotation device, and then another firefighter was lowered by a harness from a Los Angeles helicopter to pull Haynes to safety, Parrish said.

He was not injured and was released shortly after.

“I was just waiting for these brave men to rescue me,” Haynes said.

The current — which Parrish estimated was traveling 25 to 30 miles per hour — would have been too strong to battle, Haynes said.

“There’s no way,” he said. “If you’re in that current, you’re going to be taken down the river.”

Immediately following the river rescue, Glendale firefighters were notified of a mudslide on Glenmore Boulevard, Parrish said.

Police blocked traffic to parts of the street for about two hours as authorities assessed the safety of homes in the area — which curve along the hillside street.

“A building engineer came out and did an evaluation of the property, and he found it to be stable and secure,” Parrish said. “The only thing we were seeing was top soil mud coming down the hill. It was cosmetic only. The home isn’t in any danger.”

The slide was in a neighborhood that was affected by mudslides during heavy rains in January 2005.

Since that time, several of the neighborhood homes have been deemed uninhabitable, Parrish said.

“The water was gushing through,” Glenmore resident Robert Fabricante said, pointing to a crevice in the hillside along the road where he said the water was traveling. “It made that crack in the dirt. Me and my neighbor were talking, and the first thing we thought was, ‘Here we go again.’”

The hillside was the site of an avalanche of mud and debris that came crashing down in the mudslides of January 2005, he said. Monday’s slide pushed a current of mud down the sidewalk, Fabricante said, which made him uneasy.

“We have rains every year, so are we going to go through this every year?” he asked. “It’s frustrating because there was not even that much rain today, so it shows you how unstable the dirt is.”

The area was cleared and things returned to normal by 1:30 p.m., but that didn’t mean firefighters weren’t keeping a close watch, Parrish said.

“I don’t know if there is much more of this storm coming or future storms, but basically the local fire company will respond if we get more rain,” he said.

Rains and accidents also backed up traffic Monday.

A car flipped over on the northbound Glendale (2) Freeway just south of Mountain Street at about 11:33 a.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimbell said.

The driver was not injured, and Kimbell would not speculate if the accident was caused by slippery roads.

The rain was expected to clear up by Monday night, said Bonnie Bartling, a weather specialist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 70s and low 80s today, with mid-80s and low 90s expected on Wednesday.

“We are definitely going to have some sun,” she said.

gnp-rescue.23-BPhotoInfo731R8KTF20060524izp1mjncCRAIG DURLING(LA)Glendale and Los Angeles firefighters lift a man from the L.A. River near the Golden State (5) and Ventura (134) freeways after rising waters from Monday’s rainstorm left him stranded on an island.