RIPON — After finding a vehicle belonging to a missing 49-year-old Salida man in Ripon’s Stouffer Park, aerial and boat searches were launched in an effort to locate the missing man .

His vehicle had its windshield smashed after apparently hitting a tree.

The Ripon Fire Department responded putting its rescue boat teams into the Stanislaus River and the Ripon Police Department took to the air with its powered parachute taking off from Mistlin Sports Park at about 8 a.m.

Firefighters spotted the man’s green tennis shoes under low hanging tree branches just out of the water and Air One was overhead to broadcast the location of the rescue to the ground units.  The pilot of the powered parachute was not able to see the individual who was reportedly beneath the trees on the edge of the bank. The missing person was successfully extricated from the river by the firefighters.

The Salida resident said he had accidentally fallen into the river Tuesday night and could not climb out on his own.  Sgt. Steve Merchant said due to the ongoing investigation into the incident the name of the victim is currently being withheld.

Merchant summed it all up in saying, “We are lucky to have such a great fire department.  The boat crews did an outstanding job locating this missing person.”