It’s called an LSP: a “last seen point.” The spot in the water where a swimmer was once above the surface, then wasn’t — and where the search for them begins.
Sometimes all a first responder has to do is get to the LSP and plunge a hand into the water to feel an arm or leg just below.
Or a rescue diver will go down as deep as 30 feet, spot a flash of color amid the murk and the milfoil, and pull an unconscious person up.
But those things didn’t happen Aug. 9, when two people, Terrence L. Christian Jr. and Annie Saechao, went into Lake Washington in South Seattle a few hours and 1 mile apart, and never came up.
The losses illustrate not only the hidden dangers of the city’s lakes, but the complex work of the Seattle Fire Department’s rescue divers, its Rescue 1 unit, and the Seattle Police Department’s Harbor Patrol, who all responded to both rescues, and, days later, made recoveries instead.