Two people were rescued from the Santa Ana river bottom Wednesday morning. Firefighters received the call around 10:30am near the Van Buren bridge. Both Riverside County fire and Riverside City fire worked to rescue the couple who were stranded on island with water surrounding them. An inflatable boat was lowered into the river bottom with rescuers.
It took firefighters two hours to bring the couple to safety. Both were homeless and uninjured. They were offered assistance from Riverside County for shelter. Riverside Sheriff and firefighters have spent the past week attempting to clear homeless people out of the Santa River bed to prevent water rescues from the heavy rains.
