MONTROSE

Montrose search team busiest in the county

At 77 calls in 2001, local squad was 14 ahead of its total in 2000.

By Gretchen Hoffman

February 11 2002

MONTROSE -- The Montrose Search and Rescue Team kept busy last year. In fact, it was the busiest search and rescue team in Los Angeles County.

With 77 calls in 2001, the team responded to more incidents than any other search and rescue team in the county, Capt. Mike Leum said.

Coming off a relatively slow year in 2000, with 63 calls, the team had a more normal year in terms of activity, Leum said. The number of calls wasn't high, but the number of victims -- 227 -- was, he said. "That's a big number, comparatively," Leum said, adding that it was due to a couple of incidents with a lot of people involved. One one occasion, the team was called in to rescue a group of about 50 hikers snowed in at a campsite.

Of the 227, only one person was dead when team members arrived; 17 others were injured, Leum said.

The team was called in on 20 rescue calls, 29 search calls and 20 car-overs. On eight occasions, the team was called on to assist another search and rescue team.

The majority of the calls were on Angeles Crest Highway and Angeles Forest Highway, which is no surprise considering the high volume of traffic in those areas, Leum said.

About 45%, or 34 of 77, of the calls were on Saturdays or Sundays. There were almost as many calls on Tuesdays, 12, as Saturdays, 13.

The annual data is used to identify areas of unusually high activity, Leum said. A disproportionately high number of lost hikers in one segment of the forest could point to a need for better signage, he added.

The team is a nonprofit volunteer organization affiliated with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. It shares a $65,000 budget with eight rescue teams.

Since 1970, the team has gone on more than 2,409 calls, rescued more than 2,100 people and searched for more than 1,770 others.