Poudre River Drowning: Washington Teen Identified

A teen from just outside Seattle in Larimer County to visit his grandfather has been identified as the person who drowned while tubing on the Poudre River on Sunday. The Larimer County Coroner's Office said the teen is 18-year-old Maximillian Lopez.

The Poudre Fire Authority says that Lopez was with a 16-year-old when they went over a low-head dam by Watson Lake.

The fire authority said they received a 9-1-1 call around 5:30 pm.

Tthe 16-year-old male was found still in his tube and stuck in the low-head dam in the area of Watson Lake. . (For more information on this and other local stories, subscribe to your local Patch for breaking news alerts.)

A firefighter threw him a rescue rope. He grabbed it.

Bystanders helped the firefighter pull the young man to shore. He was alert and talking, and transported to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.

Lopez had fallen off his tube and was unresponsive when bystanders pulled him to shore downstream from where the 16-year-old had been found.

Bystanders started to perform CPR on him.

PFA and UCHealth EMS crews took over CPR when they arrived at the rescue scene.

He was transported to Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland by UCHealth's LifeLine air ambulance where he died.

Neither of the young men were wearing a personal flotation device, otherwise known as a PFD or life jacket.

Photo Poudre Authority