Rescue Workers Find Three Students

[Tony Anders]

FOX NEWS

Rescue Workers Find Three Students Trapped in Cave Alive



Three University of Texas students who had not emerged from a cave after nearly 30 hours were found alive and uninjured Sunday, an emergency worker said.

"The victims are uninjured, our crews are safe, it doesn't get any better than this," said Frank Urias, division commander of Austin-Travis County EMS.

The two women and one man were found in a 500-foot crawlspace that is about the diameter of a sewer pipe, Urias said. They are expected to be pulled from the cave in a few hours.

A concerned acquaintance of the missing cavers called 911 at about 5 a.m. Sunday to report the group missing after they failed to report in by midnight as had been expected. The four students — three females and one male — had planned to reach the far end of the cave complex, which can be a 12-14 hour round trip for experienced cavers, according to authorities.

Click here to read report at MyFOXAustin.com.

The underground cave complex is about 12,000 feet in length, and stretches south from under the Barton Lodge Apartments to the Brodie Oaks Shopping Center. The cave complex consists only of small crawl spaces, including a "keyhole" entrance way that measures less than 18 inches in diameter, according to Austin-Travis County EMS.

Rescuers are efforting food and medical supplies to different areas of the complex

Both experienced and amateur spelunkers in the area have also joined in the search.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


UNABLE TO MAKE LINK WORK...

[Brian Roebuck]

Good news!

Thanks for the update Tony!

[Sharon Faulkner]

Thanks Tony, they are lucky kids. Here is another link to the cave rescue, including video footage during the event:

Student cave explorers are found safe
By Kelley Shannon
Sun Oct 14, 6:54 PM ET

AUSTIN, Texas - A group of college students who didn't emerge for more than a day from a cave they were exploring have been found safe, an emergency worker said Sunday.

The two women and one man were found in a 500-foot-long crawl space about the width of a sewer pipe, said Frank Urias, division commander of Austin-Travis County emergency medical services. They are expected to be pulled from the cave in a few hours.

"The victims are uninjured, our crews are safe; it doesn't get any better than this," Urias said.

The three University of Texas students had gone into a narrow passage near Austin called Airman's Cave on Saturday morning and told friends to call for help if they weren't back by midnight, said Austin Fire Department Lt. Matt Cox.

Crews had said earlier that four students were missing but now say there were only three.

Cox said he believes the students were found by a group of citizen cave explorers who came to help rescuers. Officials had said 14 people were searching, five of them private citizens.

Article, including links to raw video footage and video from a FOX News broadcast.

--------------------------

And, one more link from this morning (Monday) with a bit of video footage:

UT students rescued from cave
Monday, October 15, 2007

Austin EMS and Special Operations fire squad emerged from Airmen's Cave with the three missing UT students after a lengthy rescue operation on Sunday. The students were in the cave for an estimated 35 hours.

Once out the trio were examined by medical personnel on scene. The students were found in reportedly good condition, but their extraction took several hours.

Full Article

[Brian Roebuck]

Oct. 15, 2007, 4:06PM
Students ventured into cave suited for experienced explorers

By KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

AUSTIN — Three University of Texas students who were rescued from a cave over the weekend weren't experienced enough for their journey inside one of Austin's longest caves, rescue workers said Monday.

"They were out of their element, let's face it," said Warren Hassinger, spokesman for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services and part of the rescue support team.

Firefighters, paramedics and citizen cavers worked Sunday to pull the three students to safety after they got lost inside Airman's Cave. They'd been inside the cave about 30 hours. A concerned friend called authorities after the group didn't return on time.

Jeff Brown, Jill Baggerman and another, unidentified, woman were found in a 500-foot crawlspace about the diameter of a sewer pipe in the long Austin cave, rescuers said. Emergency medical personnel wouldn't release the students' names because of federal medical privacy laws, but relatives identified two of the three.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5215805.html

[L Roebuck]

Here's another article. In TAG - I heard You Pay for your Cave Rescue. Can someone please verify if this is correct?

---

UT 'Spelunkers' won't have to pay for their rescue
KLBJ News Radio

The University of Texas students who got lost in a south Austin cave will not have to reimburse the city for their rescue.

Austin Fire Department Lieutenant Andy Reardron says they do not bill people for their services, with the exception of fire code violations. Reardon says a rescue like yesterdays is what taxes pay for. The city is still calculating the cost of the 11 hour rescue. Many of those fire-fighters involved in the rescue were already on-duty, but the event did require some fire-fighters to work over-time. That over-time bill was about $2,400.

Text

[Tim White]

pretzlgirl said:

Here's another article. In TAG - I heard You Pay for your Cave Rescue. Can someone please verify if this is correct?

To my knowledge there has never been any charge for a cave rescue in TAG. All of the organized Cave Rescue Teams are volunteer and do not charge for services. There may have been some fines imposed by local authorities if laws were broken such as trespassing. But I am not even aware of any such fines.

I’m sure there have been fees/bills for EMS and air evac on those rescues that required these services. But EMS transport does not fall under the Cave Rescue Teams authority.

[MessedUpMike]

There aren't many fire rescue systems that bill for their services to the best of my knowledge, paid or volunteer. That practice went out the window around the the 1900s. I have heard of instances where Dept of Natural Resources has charged for services, and in Maryland a helicopter ride costs you, but collecting it is another issue altogether.

[L Roebuck]

In thinking back on Gerald Moni's rescue at McBride's Cave I do seem to recall him saying that he had to pay for the LifeFlight helicopter to evac him to the hospital after the rescue team brought him out of the cave.

[tncaveres]

pretzlgirl said:

In thinking back on Gerald Moni's rescue at McBride's Cave I do seem to recall him saying that he had to pay for the LifeFlight helicopter to evac him to the hospital after the rescue team brought him out of the cave.

Yeah those chopper rides are not free.
My ride last yr was over $10,000

[Brad Tipton]

Yeah those chopper rides are not free.
My ride last yr was over $10,000

Wow, you were in a pretty bad accident then?

I know our team tries to refrain from calling Lifeforce unless it is either really remote or the patient is in a threatened condition.

[L Roebuck]

tncaveres said:

Yeah those chopper rides are not free.
My ride last yr was over $10,000

Ouch, do you know if the $10,000 a standard cost for Lifeflight or does it go higher?