An eight year old child was among six people rescued Saturday afternoon on the West Fork of the Des Moines River, north of Estherville. Travis Sheridan, Estherville’s Fire Chief, said a 911 call indicated a kayak flipped over and a woman and child were in the water.
“Once fire fighters got on the scene, the child was still OK, with just basically her face sitting above the water. Her life jacket was caught in the log jam,” Sheridan said. “They’d tried taking it off, but that just sucked the child further into the log jam.”
Firefighters were able to cut the girl’s life jacket off and rescue her from the river. Sheridan credits the girl’s aunt for keeping the eight year old’s head above water.
“She held onto that child for over 30 minutes,” Sheridan said. “She saved that child’s life until our rescue personnel could get on scene.”
Firefighters used the department’s rescue boat to bring the aunt, her niece and four others to shore. Two others who’d be in the river were able to get out of the water on their own. Sheridan said the Emmet County dispatcher was on the phone for 40 minutes, relaying information from the stranded people on the river to rescuers. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources deployed a back-up rescue boat to the scene and the Iowa State Patrol had three drones flying overhead to monitor the situation.
“It was just a collaborative effort by all,” Sheridan said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.”
The names of the people who were rescued have not been released.
(Reporting by Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville)
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