A raft on the Chilkat River in 2009. (John Cook/Flickr Creative Commons)

A raft on the Chilkat River in 2009. (John Cook/Flickr Creative Commons)

A Haines rafting company says an incident earlier this week which drew an emergency medical services response did not result in any major injuries.

Sean Gaffney of Chilkat Guides released a statement to KHNS on Friday. He says the Tuesday afternoon incident happened during a rafting tour on the Klehini River.

“Overnight a river channel became blocked with a newly downed tree. Our guide captaining the first route encountered it and was unable to avoid it and his raft got hung up for a moment. Nobody fell out of the boat but they did get wet. Our guide proceeded to the nearest takeout at Klukwan where we had Haines EMS and our company incident response team.”

Gaffney says some of the eight cruise ship passengers on the raft suffered scrapes, small cuts and coldness, but no major injuries. He says one person was transported to the Haines clinic but all of the visitors involved were able to get back on the cruise ship in time for departure.

Gaffney says downed trees blocking the river are one of his company’s biggest concerns and something they’re ‘incredibly vigilant’ about.

“But on this particular instance things had changed a lot quickly and it just happened in a place and in a way that we weren’t aware of it until we were right on top of it.”

Gaffney thanked the Haines Volunteer Fire Department, Klukwan residents, and rafting guides for their help.

Haines Police and State Troopers both said their departments did not respond to the incident.