OUT FROM THE COLD; RESIDENTS RESCUE JOGGER TRAPPED IN PACOIMA WASH.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

In a section of the Pacoima Wash where a dozen people were rescued last year, neighbors familiar with the water's dangers rushed to the aid of an 18-year-old jogger trapped in the frigid waters for 40 minutes Monday.

``We saw him and we thought he was drowning. He was screaming, `Help! Help!' '' said Jesus Aripes, 21, who had been alerted by neighborhood children.

After watching firefighters pluck so many others from these rocky waters, 12-year-old Alejadrina Barreda rushed rope over to her next-door neighbors, including Aripes.

Aripes and his friends, Oscar Hernandez, 20, and Juan Ayala, 23, had been watching cartoons on TV, but quickly jumped a 6-foot chain-link fence and ran to help an unidentified 16-year-old who had spotted the man in trouble in the 14000 block of West San Jose Street shortly after 4 p.m., Aripes said.

The rescuers expected emergency crews to have a hard time finding the man because that part of the wash is obscured by homes.

Aripes, his friends and the 16-year-old threw the rope out to the man, who was standing in 4 feet of water moving about 15 mph near a concrete tunnel, Aripes said. Not far away, Aripes said, the water gets funneled underground.

The four men hollered for the victim to tie the rope around his waist, Aripes said. And then the four of them walked away from the wash with the rope, pulling the victim out of the water.

``It was a pretty good current. We were just walking him toward us. We were pulling him against the current,'' Aripes said, noting that he had seen firefighters use these techniques as recently as three months ago, when another man got stuck in their neighborhood wash.

Fire officials, who noted that they had to rescue a dozen people from the same wash last year, credited at least one of the youths for saving the 18-year-old, who they would not name.

Only the 16-year-old rescuer remained at the scene when firefighters arrived, said Capt. Daryl Arbuthnott of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

``He did a real good job and put himself into danger,'' Arbuthnott said. The 16-year-old hero was not identified by fire officials.

The victim told authorities he was jogging alongside the wash when he slipped and fell into the water. He struggled to get out for about 40 minutes, said Jim Wells, a Fire Department spokesman.

The 18-year-old lost his shoes while being tossed down an estimated mile-long stretch of the wash, Aripes said.

The victim suffered from hypothermia due to the cold water, fire officials said. He was treated and released from Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, said Richie Steinborn, a nursing supervisor.

Wells said the rain and cold weather Monday made the water chillier than normal for this time of year.

The high air temperature was 61 degrees - 11 degrees below normal - at the Los Angeles Civic Center, said National Weather Service specialist Bruce Rockwell.

``The last couple of weeks have been averaging about four or five degrees below normal,'' Rockwell said.

The rain and unusually chilly weather in the 50s and 60s came to the Southland from the Northwest. Today, temperatures are expected to be in the upper 50s during the day and 45-50 degrees at night, Rockwell said.

Meteorologists predicted a 40 percent chance of rain for Los Angeles County today. But rainfall totals are not expected to be more than a quarter of an inch in any area, Rockwell said.

Daily News Staff Writer Eric Moses contributed to this story.