UPDATE: Search Continues For Sac Firefighter Missing At Camp Far West
WHEATLAND (CBS13) - The search continued Friday for firefighter missing at a Yuba County lake since Wednesday,
The Sacramento Fire Department identified him as engineer William Porter, a 10-year veteran assigned to the department's Oak Park station.
Porter, an engineer with the department, was reported missing at the Camp Far West Reservoir near Wheatland after not coming home from his fishing trip Wednesday night. He was reported missing at 5 a.m. Thursday and rescue workers searched the lake and shoreline all day without success. They were back out early Friday and joined by members of Porter's department.
"We don't leave one of our guys behind," said Deputy Chief Lloyd Ogan. "A couple of tough days for our agency and Mr. Porter's family."
But the search has turned into a recovery effort and cadaver-sniffing dogs were brought out on Friday after searches by air, land and on the water.
"Our belief is that the fisherman is in the water and at this point it has become a recovery mission," said Lt. Damon Gil of the Yuba County Sheriff's Department.
Porter, 58, joined the Sacramento Fire Department in February 2002. He was promoted to engineer in 2009 and his current assignment is driving the engine at Fire Station 6, the busiest fire company in the city serving the community in Oak Park, the department said.
Porter was also deployed in 2008 to Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav.
Porter was out Wednesday fishing on the water in his kayak. When crews got to the lake Thursday morning, they made contact with a person on the lake that had found an unmanned kayak and deputies identified it as that of the missing fisherman. They also found some of his belongings on shore.
Ben Cristi was also on the lake Wednesday night and remembers seeing a kayaker.
"I don't know if it was him or not but he looked fine when I saw him," said Cristi.
Cristi says the conditions were calm, no wind, and no strong waves.
"I would have to say, if somebody fell out of a kayak, I would almost have to say there was something out of the ordinary," said Cristi.
Bill was an excellent swimmer an excellent, an excellent rescue technician."
That makes all this that much harder to understand, even for other boaters.
"It is a little depressing to hear about," said one visitor on Friday.
Porter's comrades vow they will not stop searching for a man who would have searched for them.
"We will be here until this thing comes to a conclusion, however it does," Ogan said.
