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Water rescue at Water Street Inc.

Posted June 05, 2016 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

A 55-year-old Perryville woman is in need of prayers after a water rescue at Water Street Inc. around 10 p.m. Sunday night in Evansville.

"There was a couple from Perryville," said Water Street Inc. General Manager April Wright. "I worked with the guy in Building 3 at TG.

"They were in there having a good time."

Wright said that at some point, the couple began having an argument at the bar that spread to the parking lot outside the business.

The woman - identified by Evansville Fire Chief Darren Kempfer as Jeronda Mallory - and her unnamed boyfriend returned to their vehicle, a blue minivan with Missouri plates, and continued arguing.

"They were parked up near the ramp near the bar," Wright said. "The boyfriend said she meant to put it in reverse, but it was in drive."

Wright said the vehicle jumped the rope barrier in front of the river and the boyfriend jumped out of the vehicle as it was going downhill.

After the van made impact with the water, Wright said she heard yelling coming from outside.

"The boyfriend was yelling 'We need help, she's in the river, she's in the river,'" Wright said. "All the staff members came out."

Wright said her kitchen cook, James Dean Inman from Ellis Grove, jumped in the water to rescue Mallory. The van was halfway submerged in the Kaskaskia River.

"He knew right away he couldn't get the door open," Wright said. "I tossed him a rock and a crowbar to break the (driver's) window."

Inman dragged Mallory to shore, where Wright and another bartender, Kari Balckmon, performed CPR until emergency services arrived.

"If those workers didn't respond as fast as they did, there would be no rescue whatsoever, it would have been a body recovery," Kempfer said. "Everything goes to them. They dropped everything and worked on her very hard and worked on her until we arrived.

"They were outstanding."

In a Facebook interview, Inman said "Nothing else matters but that she's alive."

Mallory, who was unconscious during the ordeal, was transported to Red Bud Regional Hospital and later flown to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Randolph County Sheriff Shannon Wolff said it was not immediately known whether Mallory was intoxicated prior to the incident, but Mallory's family members have confirmed to the newspaper that she was.

In a Facebook message to the Herald Tribune on Monday, Mallory's niece, Bobbi Ford, said that her aunt was in a bad condition, sedated and her lungs were not flaring up correctly because they had been filled with water.

The family is asking for prayers at this time.

"I've been here three years with the previous owner and never got anything like this," Wright said. "It was scary."

Evansville and Red Bud fire departments were paged to the scene, along with MedStar Ambulance and St. Clair Emergency Response.

The Chester Fire Department was also on standby with its rescue boat.

"I've been here for 21 years and this was the first (water rescue) I've had," Kempfer said. "We've had cars drive down the boat dock and get submerged a little bit.

"Amazingly, we have not even had a drowning. This is the most major call I've been on."

Kempfer said his department is not trained in water rescue and does not have the resources for a diver or a boat.

"Legally, we are not allowed to do water rescues with our insurance," Kempfer said. "Every time we come into something like that it's St. Clair Emergency Response.

"We're right there and we flood so much and not having the money to get that equipment and training for dive rescue, it's terrible, but we just can't afford to do it."

On Monday, Joe Crafton and Kevin Steibel, with Steibel's Auto Body, towing and sales in Ruma, fished the minivan from the river.

"When we got there (on Sunday) it was underwater completely," Kempfer said. "All you could see was bubbles."

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