It is incredible video of an incredible emergency. It happened on Sunday when four kayakers in the town of
Hull, Massachusetts went out for what should have been a long weekend pleasure trip. It wound up being a life and death struggle for survival that involved heroics from two brave firefighters.
The quartet were on the water when high tide took them by surprise and forced their craft under a bridge, trapping them there as water began to rush in over them. There was only a small opening to get out and no one to pull them through, until firefighter John King jumped in to help rescue them. But he wasn't wearing a life jacket and needed help from one of his best friends, another firefighter who arrived on the scene to save the victims and his pal.
Capt. Chris Russo knew time was running out. "When someone's asking 'don't leave me here,' you're going to get him," he shrugs about his decision to act.
"Alright this is your line, it's tied to your jacket!" King can be heard telling the panicked seafarers, as they struggle to keep their heads above water. "I won't let you go!"
"I had one man by his life jacket and a woman by the back of her hair trying to hold her head up under the other side of the ladder," Russo remembers. "So there was like four people all drowning at once."
May Corkerin was one of them. She remembers the confusion and disorientation that overtook her as she struggled to escape the death trap. "It's [like a] dark black tunnel," she recalls. "You know when you get sucked under, you don't know where you're going. It's terrifying."
In the end, all four made it out as the duo managed to secure ropes to each of them and pull them through the tiny opening. The entire rescue took about an hour - but it seemed an eternity to those involved. Applause greeted the heroes when they finally lifted the last person to safety.
There were no serious injuries and everyone involved lived to tell the tale.