Emergency officials are hoping now that it was a false alarm.

Several local fire departments and other rescue units were called to Ellport Borough last night to search for a person who might have gone into the Connoquenessing Creek.

Calling it a water rescue, the Wurtemburg-Perry Volunteer Fire Department set up a command station at the Zona bus station on Route 488.

About 40 firefighters went out in torrential rains to conduct a search of the stream.

Divers from the Unionville Fire Department in Butler County were placed on standby. A state police helicopter was summoned but could not fly because of the weather. The S.O.S. search dog team of West Pittsburg was summoned, but later canceled for the same reason.

Nets were placed into the stream, according to Lawrence County 911 Center reports.

Al Leo, Wurtemburg-Perry Fire Chief who was in charge at the scene, said the department received a call around 5:30 p.m. that an unoccupied raft was floating down the stream near the First Bridge in Ellport Borough.

He said the raft was a typical inflatable swimming pool raft, and not a sturdy raft used on a whitewater expedition.

A customer of the Oak Grove Inn walked out of the tavern and spotted the raft floating, Leo said.

Thinking someone possibly could have been on the raft and fallen in the stream, the fire department went to the scene and called out the Franklin Township and Ellwood City Borough fire departments, Leo said.

“We did an intensive search of the area from the Nelco plant toward the firehall, and from Fifth Street in Ellwood City upstream to Ellport Borough,” he said.

No one was seen actually falling into the stream, and no one was reported missing to the fire department, he said.

The search was called off around 7 p.m. when another storm hit.

“I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk,” Leo said.

Reflecting on the type of raft, he said it could have blown into the stream from someone’s swimming pool.