Crews aboard an inflatable boat and rescue team members on the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River pulled a man to safety Monday morning after he was trapped in the channel near Los Feliz Boulevard.
LA and Glendale firefighters responded to the emergency call early Monday. Crews positioned on the banks of the river and an overpass pulled the victim from the flood channel.
It was not immediately clear whether the person was in the water or stranded on an island in the flood channel. The man might have been living at one of the homeless encampments along the river, firefighters said.
"The water is very cold," said Craig Wobig, of the Los Angeles Fire Department. "He didn't have any protection. The concern is hypothermia."
Four LAFD swift-water rescue crewmembers in an inflatable boat paddled to a tree and bushes where the man was stranded.
"He had been on solid ground in the channel at some point, but that ground became an island, then disappeared because of heavy rain flooding the riverbed,'' said Brandy Villanueva, of the Glendale Fire Department.
They secured him with rope and pulled him aboard the boat before crew members on the concrete bank of the river channel helped pull the boat to safety.
The man was transported to a hospital for evaluation.
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Parts of Los Angeles picked up nearly one inch of rain early Monday as a storm system moved through the region.
