June 08--Two Palos-area fire district dive teams were called on to pull an apparently abandoned, capsized boat out of the Calumet Sag Channel on Monday afternoon.
Palos Heights Fire Protection District Chief Tim Sarhage said the fire district got a call about the overturned boat in the channel, near the intersection of Route 83 and Ridgeland Avenue, shortly before noon.
There was no indication anyone was on board the boat, and it matched the description of an apparently abandoned boat Alsip police reported seeing a couple of days ago, Sarhage said. But it had drifted to the middle of the channel, posing a hazard to other boaters, he said.
"We wouldn't want a barge or another boat to hit it," Sarhage said.
Illinois State Police and fire district personnel supervised from the bridge as North Palos Fire Protection District and Palos Heights Fire Protection District personnel snagged the boat's motor and yellowed, peeling hull with a rope and slowly maneuvered it under the bridge. Five firefighters tugged it toward the edge of the channel, tying it to a sign.
Sarhage said they would return with bright-colored paint to mark it and leave it for the Coast Guard or Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to remove later, likely by pulling it down the channel with a barge.
lzumbach@chicagotribune.com
