Woman’s Sonoma Coast beach death ‘completely preventable,’ lifeguard says

Sitting on a Schoolhouse Beach rock in the pouring rain and howling wind Monday afternoon, five friends were close enough to breaking waves to feel the spray as they watched the stormy sea crash against the shore.

Then whitewater from a particularly large wave broke over the rock, sweeping the five Solano County residents into the water. Only four got out.

Victoria Alvarez, 19, of Fairfield apparently drowned.

When the three males and one female made it to the beach, they realized Alvarez was missing. One ran across the street to a nearby home and borrowed a phone to call 911, then ran back, Sonoma County sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

The 1:35 p.m. call launched a water rescue response to the beach north of Bodega Bay. A state parks lifeguard arrived within five minutes, joined by another state lifeguard and ?two Bodega Bay firefighters with water rescue training. Wearing wetsuits and carrying long rescue boards, they went into the water to search for Alvarez. Within 15 minutes of the call she was found, floating facedown and unconscious.

The Sonoma County sheriff’s helicopter lifted her to shore, and she was taken by ambulance to Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol, where she was pronounced dead.

The survivors were taken to a ranger station at Salmon Creek Beach, where they dried their clothes and answered questions. The group told park rangers they had headed for the coast, picked that beach to stop, saw the rocks and decided to get close, supervising state parks peace officer/lifeguard Tim Murphy said.

“They were pretty traumatized,” he said.

Their actions were a “classic recipe” for disaster, said Murphy, a veteran lifeguard who said warnings are issued regularly about the danger.

State parks lifeguards annually save people along the Sonoma Coast who get too close and are swept into the water. Two of the most common warnings are: If you’re standing on sand wet from waves, you’re too close to the water. And if the water looks too dangerous, it probably is. Monday was treacherous, with high swells reaching ?12½ feet, pounding surf, winds blowing about 30 mph and heavy rainfall.

“The surf was so bad on that beach that two of our rescue boards we use both got broken yesterday,” Murphy said. “That was an indication of how powerful it was out there. (Those boards) are made to take a beating.”

Monday’s tragedy punctuated the warnings. Murphy said the death was “completely preventable, with just a little bit more caution and situational awareness.”