Update: Below the original story is an eyewitness account from BayToday reader T-Sha Dawn.
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Two men who saved three lives in the freezing water off Sunset Park last evening are saying they did what anyone would do...act quickly to save people from drowning.
Friends Patrick Cormier and Derek Nowry were fishing from their canoe around 8:30 last night, when cries for help broke the still air.
"We heard some yelling while we were out fishing, Nowry told BayToday at the scene.
They paddled around the point and found two men in the water along with a two-year-old girl about 150 yards offshore.
"We picked the little girl up first and then went and threw life jackets out to the men," said Cormier. "She was the only one wearing a life jacket."
After tossing the lifejackets, the pair then took the little girl to shore.
"There was a bunch of stuff floating, there was a gas tank floating, a whole bunch of debris from the boat when it went under. We saved the little girls life." Cormier recalled later in the parking lot as he and Nowry started packing away their gear.
At the time, they thought they may have been too late to save the girl's life as she bobbed in the cold water.
"I picked her up and she didn't look very good, but then she looked me dead in the eye when I picked her up and started screaming," recalled Nowry.
"The distance between the two adults and the little girl was about 60 feet and she was floating there by herself."
A lifejacket saved her from certain drowning, on what they later learned, was her second birthday.
"She was wearing a pink lifejacket, and she had no choice but to be there. We saw her right away and she wasn't moving, just lying on her back. All I can remember is just her little feet hanging out of the water, so we grabbed her and put her into the boat and she starting crying," said Cormier.
"Wasn't that a sigh of relief, ho-lee." interjected Nowry. "We knew she was okay when she started crying so then we rushed to shore and went back for the next guy."
"We went back out for one guy because he was pretty far out, but he was holding on to something...like a float," said Cormier. "We started towing him back then the MNR boat showed up and picked him up."
The victims were fishing at the time their boat capsized.
Cormier says one of the men told him how it happened.
"One of the guys says he was taking a leak and flipped the boat while he was doing that."
The 12-14 ft. boat with a little 5 hp motor is now resting at the bottom of the lake.
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Eyewitness account by T-Sha Dawn
I want to personally thank these two for helping out yesterday! Without them, the rescue would have lasted a lot longer then it should have!
Yesterday evening a group of friends and I decided to go fishing at sunset.
While fishing I looked into the distance and saw a boat in distress. Once I saw the bow of the boat go under the water and heard screaming I knew they were in distress, and immediately called 911. As I continue to yell out to the victims in the water to ensure them that help was coming, I attracted everyone in the area. Two people tried jumping into the lake in attempts to help rescue the victims, but the water was too cold and they had to turn back.
Then suddenly people were yelling at me that they could hear crying from the lake and that there was a small child also in the water. I called 911 again and notified them of this information. When I asked emergency services how long it would take to arrive I was told they were on their way but didn't have a boat. Shocked there was no boat coming, I hung up the phone and a group of us knocked frantically on nearby houses in hopes to find someone with a boat that could help. Because at that point, time was of the essence!
An older couple rushed to the scene with a kayak, and the gentlemen got into the water and helped out.
Then suddenly we could see this canoe in the distance, and all of us on land began waving our arms and yelling to get this canoes attention. We were so relieved to see someone with a canoe on the lake!
These gentlemen were definitely at the right place at the right time! They threw a life jacket to the man near his daughter and retrieved the young child from the water and safely onto land while emergency crews were standing by. The father was shortly after able to swim to the shoreline and the second male who had drifted quite far out into the lake was rescued by an emergency MNR boat 45min from when their boat sunk.
To any of you out there reading this that helped out yesterday, I want to personally thank you. Although we were strangers to one another we all worked together and did the best we could. In a race against time and in state of panic.
Had it not been for these guys in the canoe, that child would have been in the water for waaay too long!
Grown adults were attempting the water, but turning back because it was too cold for them. Imagine a small child!
The one thing these men actually did right yesterday was putting a life jacket on this young child while in the boat. Because of this.. you saved the life of your child! So despite the terrible decisions that led up to this event yesterday, it would have been tragic had you not properly secured your daughter in a life jacket.
Fortunately, everyone survived yesterday.
