A firefighter and inspector with the Los Angeles Fire Department is expected to be OK after making a harrowing escape when his SUV was swept away in a debris flow and plunged roughly 30 feet into the Pacific Ocean Thursday evening.
“Here’s something that I’ve never really seen before. A Fire Department SUV sitting in the water there in the Pacific Ocean,” KTLA reporter Eric Spillman said as the surf washed over the damaged vehicle at Big Rock in Malibu Friday morning.
The inspector was driving in the SUV around 5 p.m. Thursday when he was swept away by a wall of mud and debris during a powerful storm that dropped around 2 inches of rain in the area.
The mud flow surged over K-Rail, which turned out to be “no match for the river that was flowing through here,” Spillman said.
LAFD Spokesperson Erik Scott agreed, mentioning that there is also a tunnel under the highway but it was overwhelmed by the amount of water and mud. “It’s just simply too clogged at this point,” Scott said.
The SUV was forced over the side of the road and tumbled down a steep hillside to the ocean waters below.
“A significant drop that that vehicle tumbled through, was pushed around by the surf … He might have even had to use a knife to cut his seatbelt to get himself free,” Scott said. “The fact that our member was able to walk away, we’re just so thankful.”
Video taken the day of the crash showed the unidentified inspector walking back to safety and climbing over a fence as his astonished colleagues came over to check on him.
He was transported to a local hospital as a precaution, the LAFD said.
Scott provided an update on his condition Friday. “We spoke with our #Firefighter #Inspector, and fortunately, he just returned home from medical care and is resting comfortably with his family after sustaining only minor injuries,” Scott posted on X.
As for the SUV, The LAFD is arranging to have a “mammoth-sized tow truck with a boom and cables” attempt to recover the vehicle Friday afternoon.
The plan was to pull the SUV out of the water around 4 p.m., during low tide.
