Rescuers

Rescue workers responded to a traffic accident at about 2:35 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 340 in southern Washington County, a Washington County Emergency Services dispatcher said. The dispatcher said the accident was near Valley Road,  east of the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Further details of the crash were unavailable late Thursday afternoon, Maryland State Police said.

Rescue crews in three boats responded to a boat in distress on the Potomac River at Dam No. 3 Wednesday night, according to a fire official. People on the boat were taken to the West Virginia side of the river, according to Roger Otzelberger of the Potomac Valley Volunteer Fire Co. People on the pontoon boat were able to drop anchor in the river at the dam up from Harpers Ferry after they experienced problems at about 8 p.m., Otzelberger said....

Emergency crews responded to a report of a possibly overturned canoe in the Potomac River near Sandy Hook Tuesday afternoon, but it turned out to just be a deflated raft, a Washington County emergency dispatcher said. The incident happened near the U.S. 340 overpass that crosses the river into West Virginia, the dispatcher said. While on the call, crews spotted several individuals standing on a rock nearby, and one female was suffering from an asthma attack, the dispatcher said.

marlob@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT - Two mothers met with the personnel of the Williamsport Ambulance Company Wednesday. One came to say thanks for saving her son's life, the other wanted to meet those who were with her son when he died. From the moment he woke up in the hospital, Michael Weltz was determined to meet the rescuers who kept him alive along Interstate 81 in the early hours of Feb. 28. The ambulance personnel couldn't remember the last time anyone thanked them for their lifesaving efforts.

marlob@herald-mail.com For the third time in less than a week, rescuers were summoned to Antietam Creek next to the Creekside Inn Sunday evening for reports of people in the water and in trouble. The screams of a woman yelling for help launched the latest rescue effort shortly before 7:30 p.m. "Two people, an adult woman and a man, went into the creek at the dam," said Cpl. Chris Howard of the Washington County Sheriff's Department. The woman, who had minor injuries, was treated by Community Rescue Service personnel at the scene, rescuers said.

The Washington County Commissioners plan to keep an eye on the finances of fire and rescue companies in the county. The County Commissioner approved a policy Tuesday that subjects the companies to auditing by the county or a county-approved contractor. The policy also requires fire and rescue companies to submit annual financial reports to the county. The commissioners "distribute a significant amount of public funds to individual fire and rescue companies for these services each year," according to information included in the county's meeting agenda.

marlob@herald-mail.com When Community Rescue Service was transporting Robert Shank to Washington County Hospital last Aug. 27, the Hagerstown man's heart suddenly stopped beating properly. Matt Blosser, Mark Taylor and Walt Lee used their skill and training to correct his heartbeat during that ambulance ride, saving his life. On Wednesday night, Shank, 76, of the 200 block of East Wilson Boulevard, faced a room full of emergency medical service technicians and thanked each of them for his life.

Sharpsburg rescuers deliver surprise baby By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI kimy@herald-mail.com SHARPSBURG - For the second time in Jamie Burker's short life, he surprised his mother. continued The first time was when he was conceived and his mother, Kristin Short, realized she was pregnant seven or eight months later. The second time was on Feb. 24 when Jamie arrived earlier than her mother expected and was delivered at home by Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services staff.

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. - Rescuers were unsuccessful in finding the body of a man presumed dead, after falling out of a boat which overturned on the Potomac River dumping him and two others Friday. Dale Ewell Frank, 32, of 203 Sycamore Road, Mount Airy, Md. survived. The body of Ervin Ray Barnes, 27, also of Mount Airy, was pulled from the river around 11 a.m. Saturday, said a Maryland Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman. Divers continued to look for Jeffrey Lee Snow, 28, of Mount Airy Apartments.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - Three vehicles got stuck Saturday evening in heavy water on River Road at Sleepy Creek, near the Potomac River, forcing emergency workers to rescue three teenagers from one of them. Dan Unger, chief of the Berkeley Springs Volunteer Fire Co., said one of the vehicles was empty when emergency crews arrived. A woman in a second vehicle that was stuck got out and walked away. As she was walking, three teenagers in a Ford Bronco drove into the water and also got stuck, Unger said.

Robert Anders of Silver Spring, Md., still has the business card from when he was someone else 32 years ago - Robert L. Baker, production manager, Studio Six Productions of Los Angeles. It was part of a ruse created by then-CIA agent Tony Mendez. Through the new movie “Argo,” the public is learning about the CIA's successful 1980 rescue of six Americans - including Anders - in Iran, three months after the U.S. embassy was overrun. Another 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Rescue crews in three boats responded to a boat in distress on the Potomac River at Dam No. 3 Wednesday night, according to a fire official. People on the boat were taken to the West Virginia side of the river, according to Roger Otzelberger of the Potomac Valley Volunteer Fire Co. People on the pontoon boat were able to drop anchor in the river at the dam up from Harpers Ferry after they experienced problems at about 8 p.m., Otzelberger said....

Emergency crews responded to a report of a possibly overturned canoe in the Potomac River near Sandy Hook Tuesday afternoon, but it turned out to just be a deflated raft, a Washington County emergency dispatcher said. The incident happened near the U.S. 340 overpass that crosses the river into West Virginia, the dispatcher said. While on the call, crews spotted several individuals standing on a rock nearby, and one female was suffering from an asthma attack, the dispatcher said.

Rescue workers responded to a traffic accident at about 2:35 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 340 in southern Washington County, a Washington County Emergency Services dispatcher said. The dispatcher said the accident was near Valley Road,  east of the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Further details of the crash were unavailable late Thursday afternoon, Maryland State Police said.

An 8-year-old boy and his mother were taken to different hospitals Sunday with nonlife-threatening injuries after the personal watercraft on which they were riding went over Dam No. 5 on the Potomac River, Clear Spring Fire Sgt. Cody Hunter said. The incident was reported around 3:10 p.m. at Dam No. 5 south of Clear Spring, according to Washington County Emergency Services. Despite signs in the area warning people of the dam, the 28-year-old Germantown, Md., woman — who was operating the watercraft — was unfamiliar with the structure, Sgt. Brian Albert of the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Nearly a day after a worker heard cries coming from a drain in a Lowe's home improvement store parking lot, rescuers retrieved a filthy calico kitten from the underground pipe Wednesday evening, Humane Society of Washington County spokeswoman Katherine Cooker said. A man unloading trucks at the Lowe's on Wesel Boulevard heard the kitten's cries Tuesday evening, Cooker said. The store notified the Humane Society Wednesday morning, she said. No one is sure exactly when the cat fell through the approximately 6-inch drain hole, Cooker said.

A vehicle fire on southbound Interstate 81 slowed traffic in the area of Showalter Road in Washington County near the Pennsylvania state line. Rescuers responded to a call at 2:53 p.m. that a tractor-trailer had caught fire near the 11-mile marker, according to a Washington County dispatcher. The incident backed traffic about one-half mile as rescuers worked to clear the scene. As of 3:30 p.m. it continued to move slowly through the area. One person was transported to Washington County Hospital with possible injuries, according to a dispatcher.

HAGERSTOWN -- Standing among a handful of observers Thursday, Morgan McCartney watched as firefighters and EMS personnel cut a mannequin from the crumpled wreckage of a sedan in a parking lot at Robinwood Medical Center. "I'm living proof that seat belts save lives," the 19-year-old Mercersburg, Pa., woman said. McCartney, an accounting clerk at the medical center, was badly injured in a crash four years ago near Fort Loudon, Pa. "I had a broken femur. I have a rod and pins in my leg. I fractured my pelvis in four places.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- A routine ambulance transport involving a Waynesboro Hospital patient turned extraordinary and deadly early Wednesday. The Mont Alto (Pa.) Ambulance Squad was called to take a woman with a high-risk pregnancy to a Harrisburg, Pa., area hospital. However, an accident at 1:45 a.m. put that ambulance out of commission. Three miles into its own journey, the substitute ambulance that picked up the woman also crashed. "I don't know where the patient was taken, but I understand she made it to the hospital," said Jim Hall, emergency coordinator for Silver Spring Township, Pa., in Cumberland County.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. -- Rescuers on Monday recovered the body of a former Chambersburg man who was flying a small plane that crashed into a jungle-covered mountain in eastern Indonesia over the weekend, according to The Associated Press. David Clapper, 46, crashed while making an unscheduled run for produce at the request of some villagers he had just dropped off, according to his mother-in-law, Mary Hernley. Clapper, son of Don and Carol Clapper of Chambersburg, graduated from Shalom Christian Academy in 1980.