Beyond calves' crying, family heard more: people in the river, calling for help

Modesto Bee - 6/29/2017

June 28--"Ever heard the cries that calves make when they're being weaned?" asks Todd Sill, who lives out on Highway 132/Yosemite Boulevard between Turlock Lake State Recreation Area and La Grange. Loud is an understatement.

Sill's neighbor across the Tuolumne River, Ron Zanker, and his brother, Allen Zanker, were out feeding calves about 7 p.m. Tuesday on their Lake Road property when, during a lull in the cattle's din, they heard a different sort of cry. Had they not, what became a water rescue could have instead been a recovery of bodies, Sill said.

Nobody should be out there ... not this year.

Ron Zanker, on the treacherous conditions in the Tuolumne River out his way

Ron Zanker said he, his brother and three nephews had to drive about a quarter-mile to the river. His nephews, with better hearing, could make out that people were yelling for help, that they were stuck and needed someone to call 911.

As Allen Zanker made the call, Ron Zanker drove back to get his canoe. Once in the water, he spotted three people -- two women and a man, all in their mid- to late 20s, according to the Modesto Fire Department -- standing on driftwood well into the center of the river. "They had three of those cheap plastic inner tubes, tied together," he said. And they had one life jacket between them.

He's very good in the canoe. He's saved several people in the river before.

Allen Zanker, on his brother, Ron

They were out of the water, which was good, because it's ice cold, Ron Zanker said. He never did learn how long they'd been stuck.

At about 7:20, two Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District boats and an engine crew went to the scene, said Modesto Fire Department acting Battalion Chief Darin Jesberg, who also responded. "PHI (Air Medical) helicopter 42 was diverted to our incident and became the eyes overhead searching for the victims," he said.

Ron Zanker had intended to stay toward the river's edge to guide rescuers to the stranded trio, he said, but it became clear the rescue boats might not be able to reach them. "There was a shallow water barrier between the main channel and the victims' location," according to Stanislaus Consolidated.

(He) was sort of deputized to do some recon and ended up pulling victims one by one back to the rescue boat.

Darin Jesberg, Modesto Fire Department battalion chief, on Ron Zanker

So, after communicating with the boat crews, Ron Zanker headed out to help. It was difficult getting his canoe through heavy brush, berry bushes and driftwood, he said. The Tuolumne "makes a turn into the brush, so there's no main channel there."

He ferried each of the three, one by one, to the Stanislaus Consolidated responders. Jesberg called the good Samaritan an "invaluable resource" in the rescue.

The three were taken by rescue boat to an ambulance waiting at the Basso Bridge boat launch ramp about a mile east, but declined medical attention, Jesberg said.

"They were happy to be out of there," Ron Zanker said.

And very lucky, Sill said. The area along the river out there is fairly unpopulated, and the chances of the Zanker family hearing them over the calves "were pretty phenomenal."

Deke Farrow: 209-578-2327

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