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Family members were contacted by EPD with the hope that the boys that we were looking for had left the water unobserved when the witness' ran to guide Engine 7 in. This brought the families who are related to the waters edge and one family member had to be treated at the scene due to the stress of the situation. By this time the neighborhood came out to see what the commotion was and dozens of bystanders had lined up on the shore watching the operation. We continued searching as organized as possible for the next 45 minutes until the possibility of survival was non - existent and the crews were exhausted. LCSO then arrived and they deployed their divers in an attempt to locate the bodies. The conditions were absolute zero visibility and Fire crews assisted by staffing the search lines on the shore to free up all the divers for underwater operations. LCSO got their helicopter in the air about 30 minutes later in an attempt to see down in the pond however the slit was so stirred up that after a dozen or more passes and with a lightening storm approaching, they terminated flight operations. LCSO continued to dive through out the evening and the Eugene Fire and EMS air and light truck provided lighting for the scene throughout the night. At about 2200 hours, John Miller the LCSO search and rescue leader contacted me and asked if our medics on scene could dive as his crew was now exhausted and they are members of the Sheriffs dive team. After getting their gear the Eugene Medics found the boys in about 10' of water just west of the reported last seen point around midnight. Family on scene at the time (mom, dad, aunt, uncle) were devastated at the confirmation but later thanked us for getting their family out of the pond that night. This is the basic history that leads us to the point of the challenges that we faced as rescuers on June 19"' 1. Access was poor from the Jessen gate area. The old bridge was wooden and was removed due to vandalism damage in the past. This made it impossible to drive to the scene from the station 7 access point. Crews always respond to the closest location of the ponds as that is were most of the recreation takes place. 2. The location was as far from Jessen road as possible. This made for an extended run to the scene and delayed crews for 5 to 6 minutes. 3. The ponds have no landmarks, labeling or other features that can assist callers in determining the location of the emergency. This made locating the guides a challenge and grass and brush in the area hampered crews from visualizing the entire complex on arrival. The signage could include a pond # or description to assist callers. 4. The bottoms of the ponds are not a uniform depth. It was reported that the victims were running across the pond in a foot race and then walked off the drop off and began to fight in the grass growing in the pond. One victim attempted to assist the other victim and both sunk in the panic. 5. Signage does not address hazards or mention not to swim in the ponds. One observation that I shared with John Clark is that with the Fern Ridge dam drainage project underway that trucks are driving past the pond area to deliver rock and the Army Corps of Engineers are now dumping material off of Central road to build a levy with the extra material. I understand the environmental, habitat, recreation, and financial issues around adding material to the ponds to eliminate the drop offs but it is possible that this could be a low cost option with the major construction in the area. I spoke with John Clark about putting divers in the water to determine underwater hazards as it was reported that a few cars are in the pond where the last victims drowned. I hope this helps with identifying the challenges that we faced as rescuers responding the Golden Garden Ponds. Please consider me a resource for any information that I can research or provide that will assist in reducing these challenges in the future. Joe Zaludek District Chief — Eugene Fire and EMS Page 2 of 3