A woman was caught in the American Rivercurrent and drowned Friday between the Highway 49 and Mountain Quarries Railroad bridges.

The woman was observed by a firefighter attempting to cross the American River at the confluence by foot shortly after 11 a.m. But the crossing went tragically wrong as he watched her slip and struggle in the fast-moving river.

A fire crew had been dispatched on a wildland fire reported in the confluence area and the firefighter could see from a vantage point above the river on Highway 49 as the woman and two other people made their way into the river upstream from the Highway 49 bridge, Auburn State Recreation Area Superintendent Mike Schneider said.

The stretch of river is just past where the middle and north forks of the river meet in the AmericanRiver canyon below Auburn, increasing the force of the current.

“They were in shallow water and trying to cross the river,” Schneider said.

While the woman’s death was still under investigation, indications were that she slipped on rocks and was carried downstream by the current, he said.

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