By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Something didn’t seem right to Greg Meinhold when he saw a canoe containing just a dog in the middle of Silver Lake.
The 40-year-old commercial real estate broker had to commandeer a canoe and a large cookie sheet to rescue the canoe’s occupant, who had sloshed into the chilly water late Friday morning.
The victim, a 44-year-old Everett man, was wet, cold and embarrassed. He had been in the frigid water about 20 minutes, and was taken by Everett aid crews to Providence Everett Medical Center for observation and treatment for hypothermia, Everett fire officials said. He was released Friday afternoon.
His dog, identified by police as a black Labrador mix, was sopping wet but just fine.
Meinhold was one of several people who spotted the stricken man while driving along 19th Street SE next to the lake.
"The picture just wasn’t right," said Meinhold, of Everett, who said he spotted the canoe tipping sharply at one end, with what looked like a dog in the middle. The canoe was a quarter-mile or so away, he said.
En route to pick up his dry cleaning Friday morning, Meinhold said he parked his car and went to the fishing dock along the shore. He eventually saw the stricken fisherman thrashing in the water, and looked around the dock for something buoyant.
Then he remembered having seen canoes at nearby Emory’s Lake House Restaurant, so he drove there and burst in the back door, where the chef was getting ready for the lunch crowd.
"The guy kind of looked at me like I had lost my mind," Meinhold recalled when he demanded a paddle for one of the two canoes stationed there. There were no paddles, so they rushed back into the kitchen looking for something that would propel a canoe.
A heavy, 18-by-24-inch cookie sheet was handy, so Meinhold set out on his odyssey.
Emory’s manager, Brian Cole, said the cookie sheet worked just fine. He didn’t witness the rescue, but others reported that Meinhold "got out there pretty quick."
The rescuer recalled later that he had to hold onto the side of the canoe with one hand and ply the water with the cookie sheet using the other. He frequently had to change hands to keep his canoe headed in the right direction.
Meinhold, who as a Boy Scout taught the use of canoes, called out to the stricken man to let him know help was on the way and to reduce his panic. The man was clinging to his stricken vessel, and his life vest had floated far out of his reach.
When Meinhold arrived at the swamped canoe, the victim didn’t have the strength to pull himself aboard on his own. Meinhold had to help, leaning far to one side to keep the man’s weight on the other from swamping the rescue canoe, too.
"He seemed to be a mountain of a man at the time," Meinhold said.
Then Meinhold fetched the dog, which he said is named Sara, and started to paddle toward shore, keeping the man talking all the while. Fire officials estimate he had been in the water 20 minutes before being pulled into Meinhold’s canoe.
Someone else with a boat retrieved the man’s canoe and fishing pole.
Meinhold said he nearly panicked when he didn’t see any buoyant devices at the fishing pier after spotting the swamped canoe. He also suggests that firetrucks carry inflatable boats for similar rescues.
Armed with canoe and cookie sheet, why did he go to the rescue while others didn’t? Meinhold said he couldn’t stand it.
"It just broke my heart, this guy out there," he said. "It’s a human life. You just pray to God somebody would do it for you or someone you cared about."
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447
or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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