ALTOONA, Iowa — The first emergency response crew to arrive at Adventureland Park the night of the Raging River accident told Local 5 they experienced stressful challenges in their attempt to reach the ride.
Ten firefighters with the Altoona Fire Department responded to the 911 call on July 3. The accident left 11-year-old Michael Jaramillo dead from his injuries and his 16-year-old brother David in critical condition.
"The biggest challenges, for us, were gaining access to the area of the raft. That would be the first one," Lance Routson, deputy chief of operations for the department, said. "The second one, I would say, was summoning the appropriate amount of resources we needed to get them there.”
Routson called the area "too restricted" to get closer than about 100 yards and described the night as "stressful".
“The units that could get that close to the raft were the ambulances only," he added. "There were other units that responded, particularly two fire engines, that brought specialized equipment and people that couldn’t get any closer than about 200 yards."
Responders arrived at Gate 2 on the park's west side, because that was the closest area to the raft.
However, the incident report shows they might have had another issue.
"... arrived at Gate 2 to find it was closed and appeared to be secured with a heavy chain and lock," the report states.
"The person that wrote that was the fire chief," Routson said. "What he did then was he made the decision to leave his vehicle there and proceed past the gate on foot. He was able to get around the gate on foot and then back to the area of the raft."
Two members of the Altoona Fire Department were stationed inside Adventureland on July 3, which is why it only took four minutes from when the 911 call came in until a first responder reached the Jaramillo family.
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