A patient at Sitka Community Hospital was medevaced on Friday (4-5-19), after attempting to drown himself in Eliason Harbor.
Sitka police received numerous 9-1-1 calls on Friday morning at 11 a.m. reporting a naked man walking on Moller Avenue.
According to police dispatch reports the man crossed Halibut Point Road at the skate park and walked into the water and went under.
A harbors vessel was on scene first with an Alaska Wildlife Trooper who was able to pull the man from the water prior to the arrival of fired department divers.
CPR was started immediately, and the man was taken to the Eliason Harbor work float, where Sitka Fire Chief Dave Miller says emergency medical personnel were eventually able to restore the man’s pulse after around a half-hour of effort.
The man was transported to Sitka Community Hospital, and subsequently medevaced for additional treatment.
According to Miller, this was the victim’s second recent attempt at self-harm. Last week, responders were called to Back Beach where the man also had entered the water.
Weekend House Fire
The Sitka Fire Department also responded to a small structural fire over the weekend. Chief Dave Miller says that the department was called to a residence at 1403 Halibut Point Road at 11:55 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, where a window frame was burning.
The occupants had already extinguished the small blaze by the time firefighters arrived, who then removed the window and inspected the walls with thermal equipment to ensure the fire was out.
Miller says the cause of the fire remains unknown .
