Water was above her waist when she was rescued.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Five Olympia firefighters rescued a woman trapped in mud near Squaxin Park Wednesday as the tide rose around her, highlighting the hidden dangers of the area’s tidal flats.
The 911 call came in around noon, with dispatchers reporting the woman was stuck near Ellis Cove beach with water already reaching her waist and mud up to her thighs.
Rescuers say she attempted to walk from one beach to another when she became trapped — the harder she struggled to free herself, the deeper she sank.
“We were racing against time,” said Olympia Fire Lieutenant Steven Busz. “There definitely would have been water over her head at full tide.”
A state Department of Fish & Wildlife boat, which happened to be out on a training exercise at the time, helped Olympia firefighters reach the woman.
Rescuers deployed a specialized piece of equipment called a mud board to stabilize two firefighters on the unstable mud flat while three others on the boat worked together to pull the woman to safety. She was not injured.
Lt. Busz, who said his department responds to a couple of similar calls each year, explained why victims are virtually powerless to free themselves without assistance.
“There is no way to get yourself out of it without having someone either pulling you or you pulling on something else,” he said. “The harder you try, the more you’re going to sink. It just goes and goes and goes. There is no hard pan for you to push off of.”
Firefighters are using the incident as a reminder that the region’s shorelines carry serious and underappreciated risks.
“Everything around the shores are tidal flats, and it’s all going to be soft unless it’s something that never sees tidal water,” Lt. Busz warned.
With warmer weather drawing more visitors to outdoor areas, Olympia Fire is urging the public to admire the mud flats from a safe distance and to stay off of them entirely.
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