EDITOR’S NOTE

The following account of the search Wednesday for a missing 5-year-old child in the Maplewood Heights area was written by Daryl Gummere of Renton, a member of IAFF, Local I-66, and firefighter for the Boeing Fire Department. – Dean A. Radford

Today (Wednesday, April 15) at approximately 2:45 p.m., a father and grandmother noticed their 5-year-old son/grandson was missing. Their cries for help didn’t go unnoticed. The King County Sheriff’s Office was notified and we, the neighborhood, were asked to help find the boy. Calls to other parents were made and news spread to Maplewood Heights Elementary as school was about to let out.

At approximately 3:15 p.m. the sheriff’s helicopter was circling overhead and the streets were filled with people to help find him. We have many acres of woods around the local park. I saw kids on bikes, people walking their dogs, joggers and strangers combing the woods, front yards and back yards. All looking for a boy we didn’t even know very well. My wife went to the local fire station and asked for help. The crew of Renton Fire Department, Station 16, didn’t hesitate. They brought her in for information, went to a computer and googled our neighborhood to help identify and map out potential search sites. She also called the duty crew at Eastside Fire and Rescue, Station 78, for assistance. They said yes and were willing to search their jurisdictional boundaries.

Officers from the Sheriff’s Office and Renton Police were on the streets, interviewing people and looking for the little boy. After an hour of intense searching, the boy was found. He was unharmed and safely returned to his father and grandmother.

It was a very impressive show of community support and neighborhood involvement. When I spoke with a sheriff’s deputy, she told me the helicopter pilot was very impressed with the number of people on the streets and in the woods looking for the boy. It absolutely fills my heart with joy, that with all the issues facing us today, that our friends, neighbors and complete strangers were willing to completely drop what they were doing to take the time and do whatever to bring the missing boy home safely. No other outcome would have been acceptable!

Our neighborhood out here in East Renton …. we freakin’ ROCK!!!!