Several agencies joined forces late Sunday night to rescue a father and son who were stranded on the Little Warrior River.

Tim Thrasher, 37, and Joseph Thrasher, 15, put their boat into the river near U.S. Hwy. 31 at about 1 p.m. Sunday, according to a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office incident and missing person report.

They had planned to boat to the Buckshore Bridge on Mt. Olive Road and call Tim Thrasher’s wife to pick them up there, according to the report.

The Thrashers’ boat had no motor; the father and son were using paddles.

The Mt. Olive Fire Department was alerted about someone missing on the river, and called the Warrior and Fultondale fire departments for mutual aid assistance to help with the search, according to Mt. Olive Fire Chief Chip Cousins.

“We make about four or five of those type rescues off the river every year,” he said.

Warrior Fire Chief Clay Neely said his department received the call at about 10 p.m.

“We were told that a lady’s husband and son were supposed to have checked in hours earlier from a boating trip,” Neely said. “She hadn’t heard from them since 1 p.m.”

Warrior rescue personnel put their boats into the river and headed south/west. Meanwhile, members of the Fultondale and Mt. Olive departments started the search heading north/east up the river, according to Fultondale Fire Chief Larry D. Holcomb.

Searchers found the pair at about 3:30 a.m. “About two hours into the trip, we found the boat tied off on the bank,” Neely said. “We found the two up on the bank and gave them some water.”

The father and son did not require medical treatment, but were exhausted and dehydrated, according to the report. “They were worn out,” Holcomb reported to the Fultondale City Council on Monday. “They couldn’t go any further.”

Neely said rescuers tied the father and son’s boat to a motorized boat, and pulled it back up the river to safety.

“It was a big effort on several people’s part to do it,” Neely said. “I’m glad it turned out the way it did.”

The Warrior, Fultondale and Mt. Olive fire departments had a total of three boats in the water with six rescue personnel. The sheriff’s office was assembling a crew to dispatch its search helicopter, Star One, but the helicopter was cancelled before it arrived, according to the incident report.

Neely, who has assisted in multiple river rescues and searches, said it is easy to get lost on the Little Warrior River.

“If you’re not familiar with the places to get in and out, it all looks the same after a little while,” he said. “If you’ve never been in that area, you don’t know what to expect.”

Cousins said he is working with county engineers and the county road department to create a better access point to the river.

River access is blocked at the Buckshore Bridge, he said, because people in the past have burned stolen cars under the bridge, which can cause structural damage.

“We’ve been working with them to get access for awhile but also to keep the bridge itself safe,” he said.