Firefighters to the rescue

Jeremiah Lefor, left, and Dylan Congrove leave Bally’s Total Fitness Saturday. Their efforts Friday transformed them into media celebrities this weekend. (STEVEN LANE/The Columbian)

Steven Lane/The Columbian Jeremiah Lefor, left, and Dylan Congrove take a swim at Bally’s Total Fitness Saturday to condition for enlistment in the U.S. Air Force. The 20-year-old Clark County volunteer firefighter-paramedics wound up coordinating two rescue efforts Friday.

Vancouver friends and volunteer firefighter-paramedics Jeremiah Lefor and Dylan Congrove like excitement, so they are training for the U.S. Air Force.

On Friday, their afternoon training jog in the Columbia River Gorge brought them plenty of excitement and challenge as they rendered aid to five landslide victims and tended to a man who lay dying after falling off a cliff.

It started when the friends, both 20, were putting on their backpacks at the Horsetail Falls trailhead in east Multnomah County. They heard a crash and a scream.

Running up the trail, they came across a bleeding girl. Congrove walked her down to the parking area and began tending to her, while Lefor ran back up the trail.

He found more family members who were hit and injured by falling boulders. There was another bloodied girl, a mother with serious head trauma and a man with similar injuries.

“The ‘oh no’ factor came in,” Congrove said. “It just kicked in and you do what you’re trained.”

Lefor walked the victims down to Congrove’s SUV where he set up a makeshift first aid station. The three seriously injured hikers were laid on towels behind the vehicle, and Congrove cleaned their wounds and did what he could with a small first-aid kit they had.

“The back of my 4Runner pretty much became a trauma center,” he said. “It’s the worst nightmare for a paramedic like me to be separated between three seriously injured people.”

An ambulance arrived after about 20 minutes and the five were transported to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland. The father sustained back and head trauma, the mom had head trauma and a 10-year-old daughter had a serious leg injury. A 6-year-old boy had minor bumps and scrapes and a friend had a minor wrist injury. Their names and conditions were unavailable Saturday.

After dealing with the family, Lefor knew that their work wasn’t done. As he was running up the trail, he had passed a few other hikers who told him about a mysterious scene: a dog peering over a ledge.

So he ran to Triple Falls and found a chow dog without its owner. He dropped to his stomach and peered over the ledge 100 feet down, but couldn’t see anything. He nudged out farther, and spotted a man 30 yards downstream from the base of the falls.

Lefor pushed his way down the side of the canyon until he reached the bottom. The man, barely conscious, was huddled in a forested area. Lefor wrapped the man in his sweatshirt.

Next Lefor ran back to the base of the falls and down the trail until he found a hiker who could call 911. He told passing hikers to give word to Congrove that he was assisting another victim.

Then, he hurried back to the victim. He tried to talk to the man, telling him help was coming, but he couldn’t do much more. So he prayed.

“It was kind of helpless,” Lefor said.

Four hours later, after rescue crews arrived but were unable to save the man’s life, Lefor left, heading back to the parking lot to meet Congrove.

Congrove and Lefor gave interviews to local television stations that night. They hugged each other, chatted about the ordeal and discussed getting a bite to eat. Finally they headed home.

Their efforts made them celebrities among local media Saturday and might land them on the “Today Show” this week. Lefor and Congrove were the first paramedics on scene — even though they weren’t equipped with rescue gear or many medical supplies.

Both see their volunteer firefighting experience as a boost to their goal of enlisting in the U.S. Air Force.

Lefor, a Vancouver Fire Department volunteer, and Congrove, who volunteers with Clark County Fire and Rescue, are training and plan to enlist by early next year.

On Saturday, they swam in the pool at Bally’s Total Fitness to improve their strength and conditioning. After the swim, they fielded more media calls and text-messaged with friends. If they come across another emergency, they’ll be prepared to handle it.

“When you’re on (duty), you expect it,” Lefor said. But when the need arises, “there’s no time to think. It just all clicks in.”