San Diego Fire-Rescue responds to 75 rescue calls during Tuesday’s rainstorm

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – In a three hour period Tuesday afternoon and evening, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., San Diego Fire-Rescue Department crews responded to 75 water rescue calls.

Most dealt with cars in flooded intersections. 

Among the calls was a report at 3:43 of a car in a flooded intersection at Mt. Alifan and Mt. Aguilar. The first fire engine arrived to find three vehicles stuck in the intersection. Water was halfway up the door on all three vehicles. Firefightrers rescued a woman and her dog from one car, a man and two children from another, and a man, woman and two children from the third.

As the water continued to rise, it overwhelmed the drainage system and flooded eight apartments that were below grade in an apartment complex. Water was approximately a foot and a half deep.

At 4:00, a section of water-saturated drywall let loose from the ceiling of the Courtyard by Marriott at 2435 Jefferson Street. There was no structural damage to the building. But water also flooded the underground parking garage, where four or five cars were parked.

AT 5:09, a call of four feet of water in the yard at a house at 3322 Logan Avenue flooded the house and  displaced two people. 

At 5:39, the first floor of an apartment building at 4770 Home Avenue flooded, forcing evacuation of residents from several units.

All told, in addition to the water rescue calls, and a large number of calls that involved flooding, but because there was no hazard, did not require that fire-rescue units be dispatched, and the normal volume of emergency calls, the Fire Emergency Communications Center handled 207 emergency calls in that three hour period. 

The San Diego Lifeguard River Rescue Team responded with fire units to a number of these calls and remains on alert throughout the night.

The public is reminded that 9-1-1 is for emergency use only at all times, and especially in situations such as today’s, handling non-emergency questions impedes the process of helping people who genuinely need it.