Bystanders at beach rescue voice concerns that county took too long arriving at the scene

Wednesday evening started like any other for the fellas at Fire Station No. 2 on St. Simons. The guys were in jovial moods, joking with one another like brothers as they threw a few steaks on the grill.

But about 7:10 p.m., a call came through that changed the station’s atmosphere.

Three teenage girls were stranded on a sandbar near the King and Prince resort.  Immediately, the crew turned off the grill, grabbed their rescue equipment and headed to the beach to come to the girls aid.

Firefighter John Baker was tapped to swim out to the sandbar and bring the girls back safely to shore. Baker doesn’t want to be labeled as a hero, he said, as his efforts were all in a day’s work.

“I wasn’t doing any of it for recognition. I was just doing my job,” said Baker, 25.

And, he added, he was doing his job as quickly as possible.

The three teens, Sarah Wagner, 18, Emily Wager, 15, and Laura King, 15, all of Nashville, were stranded on the sandbar after high tide came in and their raft floated away from them. The rip tide in the ocean was too strong for the girls to swim back on their own, said Lt. Nate O’Brien.

After Baker and volunteer Joel Moody, a Hinesville resident and a former lifeguard, brought the three teens safely ashore, bystanders voiced concern about the presumed slow response time of the crew. St. Simons Island resident John Quartermann witnessed the rescue from start to finish, and said he was appalled at how long it took the rescuers to get to the scene.

“I’m happy the kids are safe, but angry the county and this island are not better prepared,” Quartermann said Wednesday.  “This is a sign of horrible negligence. There were no rescue boats or lifeguards anywhere to be found. The police department, the fire department, the Coast Guard, they need to have their butts whipped into shape. This could have been a terrible, horrible tragedy.”

Baker, though, disputed such claims.

The rescue squad made the two-mile drive from the station to the Arnold Street beach access point within four minutes after receiving the call, and he was in the water swimming out to the teens within a minute after that, Baker said.

“That is less than the time allowed for such a rescue,” Baker said, noting that he wasn’t sure what the exact allotted time would be for this procedure. “It didn’t take long at all.”

Witnesses were also concerned that the Coast Guard, which was called to the scene, never showed up. Baker said that was because after the rescue was made, the Coast Guard was notified to turn around.

Tourists being stranded on sandbars after high tides come in is a common occurrence on the island in summer months, though this was Baker’s first time making such a rescue, he said.