HARRISBURG- A 69-year-old fisherman anchored his boat in the Susquehanna River near the Dock Street dam last week, hoping to reel in the big one.

Instead, his small anchor broke loose from the silt and his boat was sucked into the backwash below the low-head dam, an area known as a drowning machine.

Few people escape the violent underwater death trap created by the fast-moving water plunging over the dam. The dam in Harrisburg alone has claimed 17 lives over 20 years.

As the fisherman's boat capsized at the dam, he grabbed ahold of it at just the right moment to keep his head above water. But the river savagely churned all around him, submerging his 12-foot boat and ripping off all of his clothes, including his socks and shoes.

It happened so fast, six fishermen under the bridge along the Riverwalk missed it.

But a railroad employee working on the West Shore spotted the trapped man and heard his cries for help. The employee summoned Harrisburg firefighters, who swarmed the dam and launched a daring rescue effort May 26.

Harrisburg firefighters rushed to the scene with their equipment while crafting a two-fold plan. Harrisburg firefighters in a high-powered boat would try to get close to the man from above the dam to throw him a floatation device. That would buy him some more time. Surely he was growing weary, they thought, from the beating he was enduring.

Meanwhile, below the dam, other firefighters and members of Harrisburg River Rescue would attempt a surgical strike, hoping to pluck the fisherman out of danger.

Rescuers across the country have died during such missions, even during training for such missions, said Fire Chief Brian Enterline. Because of the danger, and lack of equipment, Harrisburg firefighters hadn't ever trained along a low-head dam before.

Firefighters Nathan Martin and Joshua Winters launched a high-powered boat from City Island with three floatation devices at the ready as Lt. Aldo Morelli and Firefighter Josh Hull donned their dry suits to work downriver.

Martin and Winters wanted to avoid getting too close to the dam to avoid going over, but they needed to get close enough to accurately throw the floatation device. They tossed the first one, which was quickly sucked into the water just to the left of the victim.

The second device missed to the right. Martin and Winters inched closer to the dam, putting the boat in a precarious position, because they knew they had one last chance. They tossed the third floatation device directly to the grateful victim who sobbed as he put it on.

Martin and Winters sped off, their highly-skilled maneuver complete.

Morelli and Hull approached from the other side of the dam in a small yellow Rapid Deployment Craft, or RDC. It's built with a portal on the front to accommodate water rushing over the dam and allow a victim to be pulled on board.

Morelli and Hull were each tethered to their rescue craft, which was tethered to a motorized boat. Their plan? Row directly into the boil line and grab the fisherman through the portal. The motorized boat behind them would then pull them all to safety.

"We were going to get that guy," Morelli said. "No matter what it took."

But on the first attempt, they got sucked into the boil too far to the right to reach the victim. They paddled with all their strength to get closer, but their craft didn't budge against the current.

"We were stuck in there," Hull said.

The motorized boat reeled them back so they could try again.

Through luck or skill, or a mix of both, the firefighters' second attempt put them right next to the victim, who was pleading for help.

They told him to hang on until they could get in a better position. They didn't want him to let go of his overturned boat prematurely and get sucked into a deadly underwater trap.

"Don't jump," they told him. "Let us come get you."

Once they eased closer, the panicked man leapt toward them. He clutched the webbing that encircles the craft and Morelli grabbed his arms. Hull then jumped on top of Morelli to ensure he didn't get pulled overboard. The firefighters gave the signal and the motorized boat commanded by another firefighter and a River Rescue volunteer pulled them out of harm's way.

Morelli then pulled the victim onto the craft. They met two other boats and lifted the exhausted victim onto a boat with blankets. The entire rescue lasted about 30 minutes.

"He was so thankful," Hull said. "My guess is he wasn't going to be able to hang on to that boat much longer."

Firefighters regrouped and then went back to the dam to fetch the man's boat, which they towed back to shore.

The successful outcome was due to the tremendous teamwork, Morelli said, by Harrisburg firefighters, River Rescue volunteers and Rescue 37 from Susquehanna Township.

"It was very intense," Morelli said of the rescue. "There was a lot of communication involved."

The agencies have enjoyed a closer relationship in recent years as Harrisburg has invested in better water rescue equipment and training, he said. As it happened, Harrisburg firefighters planned to undergo low-head dam rescue training two days after the rescue.

"I've never done a water rescue like that before," Morelli said. "I don't think it ever crossed my mind that this was dangerous for us. It's about the life that was in danger out there."

Hull said he thought previous training provided by the department, even though not directly involving low-head dams, helped to prepare him for his role.

"We've done a lot of water training," he said. "I actually felt pretty comfortable."

The incident carries several lessons, according to the fire chief: the fisherman apparently got too close to the dam, didn't have a proper anchor for the situation and wasn't wearing a personal floatation device. Enterline said people on watercraft should wear floatation devices and respect the power of moving water.

"With any type of incident, whether water rescue or trench rescue," Enterline said, "it's usually not a significant failure of one thing, it's multiple small failures that create the catastrophic event."