{"id":46605,"date":"2021-05-25T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T01:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunday-boating-turns-into-rescue-at-vallecito-reservoir\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:32:47","slug":"sunday-boating-turns-into-rescue-at-vallecito-reservoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunday-boating-turns-into-rescue-at-vallecito-reservoir\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday boating turns into rescue at Vallecito Reservoir"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Vallecito
Vallecito Reservoir, northeast of Durango, was near capacity May 20. The reservoir reached 96% capacity Tuesday, and the Pine River Irrigation District, which manages the reservoir, expects it will fill completely.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A day of boating turned sour for two people at Vallecito Reservoir on Sunday when their boat capsized, prompting a rescue by the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.<\/p>\n

The man and woman were in a thin jon boat on the 2,720-acre lake northeast of Durango when the boat became swamped and flipped. The couple held onto the boat and called 911 using a phone stored in a waterproof container, said Bruce Evans, chief with Upper Pine Fire.<\/p>\n

Upper Pine crews were able to rescue the pair and bring them to shore within 50 minutes, Evans said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving your phone, your connection to the 911 center, in a waterproof case was a brilliant move on that woman\u2019s part,\u201d he said. \u201cIt probably made a good outcome from what could have been a case of severe hypothermia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six Upper Pine crew members, two ambulances, a rescue truck and Vallecito Marina staff members joined in the response.<\/p>\n

The fire district recently conducted emergency response pre-planning with the marina. When the emergency responders arrived at the marina, staff members had a pontoon boat ready to take them out onto the lake, Evans said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a boating mishap during National Boating Safety Week,\u201d he said. \u201cMake sure you\u2019ve got your personal flotation device or your life jacket on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The water in Vallecito Reservoir was about 50 degrees on Sunday, according to LakeMonster, an online recreation resource.<\/p>\n

At that temperature, people start to lose their dexterity after about 10 minutes if they do not have protective clothing. They may feel exhausted or lose consciousness after 60 minutes, according to the University of Minnesota Duluth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in cold water, it can really disorient you, even if you\u2019re a good swimmer,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThen it just takes a few minutes to make a mistake that could lead to a bad outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

fire chief urges boat safety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,1500],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-vallecito"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86951,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46605\/revisions\/86951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46605"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}