Rural Metro Fire Department was involved in two rescues on Sunday afternoon in the "unprotected area" of Josephine County. Fortunately, neither incident resulted in serious outcomes. Shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday, the 9-1-1 Dispatch Center received a text message from someone reporting a dirt bike crash in a remote location up Taylor Creek Road. The text indicated a rider had slid off the Taylor Creek Trail and the biker's legs were pinned under the motorcycle. Rural Metro crews and medics from American Medical Response hiked in a half-mile to extract the rider and a friend out to the trailhead. Along the way, rescuers encountered a rattlesnake that had to be euthanized in order to safely reach the patient. After a medical evaluation, the rider denied any injuries that would have required transport to the hospital. On Sunday at 3:40 p.m., residents living along the Rogue River observed an overturned orange Tahiti raft, oar and backpack floating downstream in the 2600-block of Rogue River Highway. Calls to 9-1-1 mobilized multiple units from Rural Metro, Grants Pass Fire & Rescue and AMR that rushed to both sides of the river in search of a possible person in distress. Even though a call of a human in distress was never received, the need to follow through with searching all surrounding areas was imperative. Bank-based searchers -- along with a rescue boat launched from the Parkway Station at Baker Park -- were unable to locate anyone and the search was called off.
