Five groups of first responders rushed to the Rock River near Colona Sunday.
Someone had called 911 saying people were jumping off one of the bridges and someone was hurt.
First responders didn't find anyone at the scene.
But a false alarm is still an alarm.
Minutes matter in any kind of emergency situation.
Illinois State Police, Rock island and Henry County Sheriff's Deputies, and the Barstow and Colona fire departments.
It's a big emergency response, and one fire chief says it takes time to deploy.
"If you see something that looks out of the ordinary, you need to make sure that you're giving the responders the amount of time to actually launch a watercraft, get on the water and remove them," says Barstow Chief Matt Schnepple.
Sunday's situation could have been a lot worse. As far as he knows no one was hurt. But he believes people are learning from previous river accidents.
"I speak to people coming off the river all the time and it seems like people have a plastic bag with their cell phone, still in it, and they're taking things with them and its all about precautions that we recommend everybody takes."
Accidents still happen though. People make mistakes. Which is why so many emergency crews hit the water.
"The number of responders that you get on the scene, get in the water, that's never a bad thing."
Schnepple says the river is nobody's friend. But to some in the Q.C.A.... it's a tempting place to be.
Moline's Brandon Cameron says, "you can stop on the sandbars and sometimes when there's boats tied up in the water you can play football with them, just something fun to do."
He spent Sunday afternoon tubing along the Rock River with a group of friends. None of them in life jackets.. all say they're confident of their swimming skills... but they were keeping tabs on each other.
"At least see everyone, make sure everyone's with your group at all times, if they can't swim make sure they have a life vest."
And they took great care with their youngest member.
"He had a life vest on and we had people checking on him, holding on to his raft the whole time."
The Barstow fire chief says people don't think all the time when they're goofing off on the rivers..
He's seen people jumping from the bridges in Colona.
and he says that's always a deadly risk.
Authorities say the best way to prevent an accident on the water is to wear a life jacket.
Keep your cell phone with you in a plastic bag in case of an emergency.
And let someone know what your plans are, and where you're going to be.
