Newspaper Article

The Newspaper Article is a memo from Silent Hill: Homecoming found attached to a wall inside of the Shepherd's Glen Town Hall. The article details an accident that happened a few years prior to Homecoming. This is the event mentioned in the Instruction Manual that made Dr. Fitch a town hero.

Transcript

 * What should have been a normal school run home turned into tragedy last week when a freak thunderstorm washed a school bus into the raging torrent of the Toluca River. The normally placid river, swollen by nearly a week of record-breaking rainfall, was running almost 15ft higher than normal.


 * Mark Ward, the conscientious school bus driver for Toluca County, was unprepared for what he found when entering River View Road that runs parallel with the river. The fast moving water eroded the soil underneath the asphalt, leaving it unsupported.
 * The road suddenly collapsed as the bus pitched into the roaring river below. Carried along a white water ride for a 1/4 of a mile, amongst the screams of the petrified children, the bus became lodged under the aptly named Hope Bridge.


 * Doctor Martin Fitch MD had just finished a house call and was on his way back to the office, following directly behind the school bus when the road gave way.
 * Managing to stop in time Doctor Fitch got out of his car, braving the downpour, and ran alongside the river for 1/4 of a mile when the bus finally became jammed under the bridge.
 * Without a thought for his own personal safety, Doctor Fitch jumped into the river and swam towards the bus. After breaking the rear window, he climbed inside to assess the situation.


 * Inside he found a terrible scene. The driver, trapped by his safety-belt, had been killed when the front of the bus flooded.
 * All of the 2nd and 3rd Grade Students survived without major injury, but appeared severely frightened by the events.
 * The children were evacuated to the nearby Alchemilla Hospital in Silent Hill to recuperate after their ordeal.
 * During the evacuation, the situation took another terrifying turn. His leg trapped by the partially crumpled front of the vehicle, brave 8-year-old Alex Shepherd was unable to move.


 * Doctor Fitch knew that if Alex didn't drown, the cold waters of the Toluca River would put him into cold shock as his core temperature plummeted and he succumbed to hypothermia.
 * Time was critical. The Doctor quickly stripped off his shirt; taking a hold of the boy, he wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around him, and then waited for the rescue crews to reach them.
 * The heat and warmth of the doctor's body may well have been the only thing that saved Alex's life that day. It took the fire crews nearly 4 hours to finally free Alex from the wreckage of the school bus. During the entire time he was trapped in the bus, Doctor Fitch never left his side.


 * For his feat of bravery the City council gave their highest award to Doctor Fitch, along with the Key to the City.
 * Though tragedy struck for Martin Ward; the potential loss of all those children was averted by the selfless act of one man, Dr. Martin Fitch MD.