Central Crossing Fire Chief offers tips to not get lost

BY KYLE TROUTMAN ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com

Two people lost in Mark Twain National Forest in the overnight hours of Sept. 24 were recovered without incident by search and rescue crews with the Central Crossing Fire Protection District.

Rusty Rickard, Central Crossing fire chief, said the call to dispatch reporting the lost persons came in at about 1:15 a.m. A male had gone into the forest and become lost, and a female who went to search for him became lost, as well. The middle-aged individuals had become lost in the Piney Wilderness off Highway 76 between Shell Knob and Jenkins.

“The male went hiking and got lost, and he contacted fam- ily members around 8 p.m. [Sept. 23],” Rickard said. “The female went to locate him and searched until after 1 a.m., determining she was lost, as well. She then called for help.”

Rickard said search and rescue initially thought the pair were together, but quickly determined they were at least a mile apart.

“The process for search and rescue is a little slower than emergency response,” Rickard said. “There’s a lot of info gathering we have to do before we send out people into tens of thousands of acres of forest.”

In this case, Rickard said cell phone pings from E9-1-1 were not enough to triangulate the individuals, requiring service good enough to hit three or four towers.

“The more towers it pings, the more accurate the location is,” Rickard said. “Some pings can be tens or hundreds of feet away from the individual, but in poor service, they can be off up to a mile. For the male, we had no location, and for the female, it was 1.1-1.3 miles off.”

A saving grace in this instance was Central Crossing’s search and rescue software, which allows responders to send a text to a phone to which the user can reply, delivering exact GPS data to responders.

“It also updates after so many minutes,” Rickard said. “This has become a huge tool for us because we can see our responders and where they are in relation to the trail, as well as the lost person and where they are, and if they are moving or staying put.”

Rickard said the software quickly located the female, but the male, who had poorer service, took a few tries to find.

“We got an initial location on the male, but no updates,” Rickard said. “But, the software absolutely helped us locate them quickly. If not for that, we’d be relying on K-9s, drones or a foot search.”

Rickard said from where the pair entered the forest, the female was about one mile away, and the male was another mile-and-a-half. Once both were recovered, responders escorted them another one mile out of the woods to a highway.

In total, Rickard said the rescue effort lasted about three hours.

“Lost persons occur about half-a dozen times a year on average, and they seem to come in spurts,” Rickard said. “Some people are just hiking, and others are hunters scouting locations.”

To avoid becoming lost, Rickard suggests first and foremost telling someone specifically where you are headed.

“Let someone know where you are going and when you think you’ll be back,” he said. “Keep a charged phone, and take a map and compass and know how to use them, because a phone may not always have great service. Also pack generic supplies like food and water.

“These people did everything right, but just got turned around and lost.”

Rickard also said individuals should call emergency services sooner rather than later in such cases.

“People tend to be hesitant and just wear themselves out, usually getting more lost in that time,” he said.

The search and rescue effort came at the end of a hectic 24 hours for Central Crossing. At 6:56 a.m. on Sept. 23, Central Crossing aided Jenkins with a rollover accident on Highway EE near Highway 76. At 11:06 a.m., responders worked a controlled burn on Highway 86, and at 1:36 p.m., they responded to an unconscious person on Highway 86, where a helicopter was requested.

At 2:05 p.m., Central Crossing responded to a one-vehicle rollover near Highways 39 and 76 where there was one fatality and a helicopter requested. Finally, at 7:36 p.m., responders worked a two-vehicle accident with injuries on Highways YY and YY-15.