Four youths were rescued from the cold and swift waters of the Stanislaus River at Caswell State Park Tuesday evening by the Ripon Fire Department boat crew.

Fire Chief Dennis Bitters said it all happened about 5 p.m. when the group entered the water using inexpensive floating devices.  Two teens believed to be about 15 – a boy and a girl – were in the water with a younger boy and girl believed to be about six years old.

Bitters said the water is cold, rapid and deep and none of the four were wearing the recommended life vests.  Two of their plastic, air-filled rings caught on a tree branch with one completely deflating and a second leaking much of its air content.

The chief explained that the group went into the river at the park’s camp ground where most rafters know to leave the water at the park beach a short ways down the river.  He said the rafters eventually got caught up on an underwater tree on a sand bar that was some two feet below the surface.

The youths were about 25 yards from shore and able to stand on the tree with family members watching from the beach as anxious about entering the water as the boys and girls were about trying their luck at swimming to safety, he said.

Six members of the fire department’s boat rescue team were successful in reaching the youths by boat and bringing them to safety.

Bitters said if rafters aren’t able to get out of the water at the beach area they will likely float all the way to the confluence of the two rivers where the Lathrop-Manteca Fire Department would be challenged to get them out of the water.

The chief reiterated how much the public has been warned about the danger of the rapidly flowing river.  He added that once someone is in the cold water it limits their ability to be able to get themselves out to safety.  Life vests will save lives but very few are wearing them, he added.