Tulsa Firefighters Rescue Man Trapped In Arkansas River

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – The Tulsa Fire Department rescued a man from the Arkansas River Thursday evening.

It happened about 6:30 p.m. at the 21st Street Bridge on Riverside.

Tulsa Fire Captain Jerry Gibbons said the man had gone into the river to rescue a woman that had fallen in. He said the woman was able to make it out of the water, but the man became trapped.

He said firefighters waded into the water, put a life vest on the man, and brought him back out.

Gibbons called the spot a "drowning machine" and said that less than a year ago, firefighters pulled a drowning victim from the same spot.

He said both the man and woman were lucky to be alive.

"Very lucky," he said. "Going into a drowning like that, chances are way less than 50 percent of ever coming out alive."

The victims' names have not been released.

"Be very, very careful with floodwater. We have these hard rains and we're going to be having a lot more of them all spring," Gibbons said. "Stay out of it."