Portland firefighters rescued a 30-year-old woman and her dog Tuesday evening after they fell into a sinkhole in a Southeast Portland backyard.
Portland Fire and Rescue’s technical rescue team was called at about 7:23 p.m. Feb. 18 to 2723 S.E. 38th Ave., where the woman had fallen into the nearly 20-foot-deep backyard sinkhole. A neighbor heard the woman’s cries for help and called emergency dispatchers.
The technical rescue team found the woman and her small poodle at the bottom of the hole that was about 3.5 feet in diameter. The woman and her dog weren’t injured and were pulled from the hole by firefighters using ropes and ladders.
The woman told firefighters that she was walking in the backyard looking for her dog when she fell into the hole that had opened near a fence.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
