Keeping Watch at River’s Edge

County lifeguards surveyed the Los Angeles River in the San Fernando Valley on Wednesday in case rains turned a trickle of water into a dangerous torrent. At a fire station in Sherman Oaks near the Sepulveda Basin, lifeguards equipped with inflatable rubber boats were briefed on new river rescue techniques as they remained on standby to help anyone who might fall into one of the many flood control channels that lace the Valley and flow into the river. It was only the second time that swift-water emergency procedures developed after the drowning of a Woodland Hills teen-ager last February have been put into operation. The program, first used during heavy rains in December, was adopted after 15-year-old Adam Paul Bischoff was swept downriver to his death as police officers and firefighters, without the necessary equipment or training, futilely tried to save him.