A fisher in Oregon used a rope, his lifelong swimming skills and quick thinking to rescue a girl who fell off a jet ski and into the Columbia River from drowning, according to witnesses. Now, people are calling for the local government to formally recognize him as a hero.
The dramatic scene unfolded Wednesday off Hayden Island, when Mynor Recinos was on his riverside patio fishing and spotted two girls in lifejackets who had fallen off their jet ski in the face of a large wave.
Both girls were struggling to tread water in the river – with currents dangerously strong in certain spots – as their jet ski had drifted away. People on a pontoon boat soon approached to help one of them, the local television news station KPTV reported.
The other girl had her lifejacket awkwardly around her neck and almost over her head, and constant waves were forcing her to ingest mouthfuls of water, Recinos later told a KPTV reporter as someone accompanying him recorded their interview live on Facebook.
Recinos said he focused on the one who hadn’t drawn the pontoon boat’s attention. According to KPTV, Recinos told someone nearby to call emergency responders. Meanwhile, he tied a rope around his waist, ran across the river bank in search of a spot to get close to the river and threw himself into the water, the station reported, citing an eyewitness account from a neighbor, Ryan Mesa.
The brave fisher swam about 60ft out to her without a lifejacket, lifted the distressed girl above the surface of the water and helped her get back to shore safely.
“I just told the young woman to not get nervous,” said Recinos, who added that he had been a strong swimmer since his childhood. “All she said was for me to not leave her.”
Incredibly, that wasn’t even the first time he took an opportunity to help someone who was drowning, according to what Recinos told the KPTV reporter. Speaking in Spanish while his wife, Ana, translated, Recinos said: “One time it happened to me that I tried to save someone and they almost ended up drowning me.”
That’s why he grabbed the rope first, he explained in a portion of the interview captured on the Facebook live recording.
Mesa said he firmly believed the girl whom Recinos rescued would have died without his intervention.
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“God bless his soul,” said Mesa, who had grabbed his own life vest to join the rescue effort but relented when he saw Recinos had it all under control. “He’s a hero.”
Asked about Mesa’s assessment of him, Recinos said: “No, I’m not a hero.”
But a number of Facebook users who commented on a link to KPTV’s story of Recinos disagreed with him. Multiple users called for him to be given an award by area officials, with one saying the girls’ families could do the same, too.
“He is a hero and … angel,” one user added. Another wrote: “I’m glad he was in the right place at the right time.”
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