John Stroud/Glenwood Springs Post Independent
A helicopter and ground crews combed the Roaring Fork River south of Glenwood Springs for a little over an hour Thursday evening searching for four missing rafters whose craft overturned near Ironbridge.
Two of the six male occupants in the raft were able to swim to the shore by the nearby Westbank subdivision, but four were unaccounted for until they were located on the shore near Buffalo Valley some distance downstream around 7 p.m., Glenwood Springs Fire Chief Gary Tillotson said.
None of the rafters were injured, and all were wearing life jackets, he said.
The call came in at 5:52 p.m. Thursday that a raft had flipped when it hit the bridge pier near Westbank, he said.
“Two of them made their way to the bank, and we started a search for the other four,” Tillotson said.
Classic Air Medical was called in to assist, along with Garfield County Search and Rescue. Colorado State Patrol also assisted, Tillotson said.