(April 3, 2010) -- LBReport.com has obtained and provides extended audio below of Long Beach Fire Department radio communications reflecting the response after an SUV driven by 24 year old LB resident Lizeth Pimentel plunged off the Shoemaker Bridge on March 11.

LBFD photo

LBReport.com requested the audio material under the CA Public Records Act, and it was released to us by the Long Beach Fire Department on Friday (April 2). LBFD had previously provided the audio [we presume under a similar Public Records Act request] to CBS2/KCAL9, which in a March 31 broadcast (April 1 online) carried a 1:45 video report (with 17 second anchor lead-in) that included short sound bites of LBFD radio communications. Their report prompted LBReport.com's records request to provide the story in greater detail for our LB area news consumers.

To our knowledge, LBReport.com's extended coverage here is the public's first opportunity to hear LBFD radio communications of the response in extended form.

The audio below covers the period from 7:31 a.m. when LBFD Dispatch sent the first units to the scene until approximately 8:15 a.m. when one of the units indicates Ms. Pimentel is being taken to St. Mary Medical Center. [The audio released to us includes periods into the 11 a.m. hour, not included here.]

The audio as released to us includes automated recorded "time-stamps." We don't know exactly how they were triggered and interspersed in the resulting audio or if they may obscure some audio; when we learn details, we'll add them here.

We don't know at this point if the audio LBFD released to us (we requested what LBFD released to CBS2/KCAL9) was edited by LBFD. We provide it here as we received it with exceptions noted below.

LBReport.com has chosen for now not to include the names of individual first responders (whose names aren't independently newsworthy at this point). We indicate our edits with a "whoosh" sound.

A few words on the terminology used in the transmissions.

• The term "USAR" (pronounced "U-sar") means "Urban Search & Rescue," referring to an LBFD unit that uses sophisticated equipment (including "jaws of life" and the like) in urban-environment extrications and rescues.
• Procedure: Transmissions normally occur in the following order: Unit called, then unit calling. For example, a transmission from the field stating with "Engine 2, Rescue 2" means "Calling Engine 2, this is Rescue 2."

[LBReport.com adds theses caveats for context [our text from years of listening to police/fire radio communications]: Public safety radio communications convey only part of a news story. They can't and don't capture everything on scene. They only record what's communicated when someone presses a transmit key. They also reflect emergency situations occurring in real time...in which initial information may not be accurate or complete.]

As previously reported by LBReport.com LBFD Deputy Chief Jeff Reeb told LBReport.com, and we reported on April 1, that LBFD is in the process of completing a post-incident analysis.

"Like the Paradise Gardens and Galaxy Towers [major LB fire with fatalities], those types of incidents, we do a post incident analysis, and we are doing that for the L.A. river incident," Deputy Chief Jeff Reeb has told LBReport.com. He continued:

We're conducting a post-incident analysis and we're about half way through that process. It's pretty arduous for us. We look at every detail. So we're about halfway through We think maybe in about three weeks it will be completed.

In the immediate wake of the incident, LBFD issued the following release:

The first arriving LBFD Unit Rescue One (1), confirmed the vehicle in the water causing the subsequent request for additional resources to manage the incident. A Unified Command (UC) was established on the Seventh Street Bridge with the LBFD, LBPD, CHP, and other local, state and federal agencies.

The Land based UC coordinated operations with the LBFD Marine Safety division, to deploy their dive team in an attempt to locate the vehicle and rescue any victims inside. The first divers entered the water in approximately twenty-five minutes from the time of dispatch. The depth of the water searched was approximately fifteen feet; with almost zero visibility, and a strong current present.

The initial search operations were conducted by "Feel" and forcible entry was required to enter certain areas of the vehicle, an infant car seat was located during this operation which further re-enforced the initial information that there might be multiple victims in the vehicle.

The vehicle was found sitting on the bottom of the river on its wheels with the rear hatch facing to the East when a single female victim, approximately twenty years of age was rescued from this location. She was pulled up onto a Rescue Boat and immediately transferred to land based Firefighters and Paramedics who began Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and other Advanced Life Saving (ALS) procedures.

Subsequently law enforcement through their investigative process was able to make contact with the victim’s relatives who confirmed that she should be the only occupant in the vehicle at the time of the accident. The single victim was transported from the scene to a local hospital for continued medical treatment. Approximately one hour after the incident reports are that she is in "Critical Conditions, responding to treatment with her family at the hospital."

The vehicle was removed from the river using a large "Wrecker" with the coordinated effort of the Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) team and the dive team working together to complete a safe and efficient operation.

A secondary check of the vehicle was conducted on shore with other water based resources checking "Down Stream" to ensure that there was only one victim. Currently the LBPD and the CHP are conducting a joint investigation to determine the cause of the accident. Information on the victim will be forth coming on the direction of the family either through a direct representative or through the hospital.

...A total of 22 apparatus and 43 personnel responded to this call, from the LBFD in addition to other partnering agencies at the local, state, and federal levels.

LBReport.com invites our readers' comments below. We'll continue to provide coverage of this story as it develops.