DAYTON — Firefighters rescued a child and a good Samaritan from the Great Miami River over the weekend.
A man went into the water to help the boy, but then they both needed saving.
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The incident happened near the Main Street Bridge around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Sky 7 captured a view of the water feature that boaters use. Dayton Fire said the Great Miami River can appear calm, but poses some serious dangers.
James Cummings said he knew about some of those dangers, even ended up experiencing some of them firsthand, but felt like he had to save the kid.
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“It was a real fight. It was like. Crazy, like trying to keep him above water, trying to keep myself above water. This is a gnarly situation,” Cummings said.
He said his Sunday night quickly became chaotic after a calm start.
He was walking on the path along the Great Miami River at RiverScape MetroPark with a friend when he noticed a 10-year-old boy standing on the water feature and in trouble.
“And then I was like, ‘Are you okay?’ He was like ‘No.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ The girls like, ‘Yeah, he was crying and this and that,’” Cummings said.
He walked out onto the water feature to help the boy.
“And I say, ‘Hey, can you swim? Are you able to swim?’ He says, ‘No.’ He says, ‘I can’t swim.’ I said, ‘Oh, man.’ I said ‘OK. Don’t worry. It’s all right,’” Cummings said.
Cummings took off his shirt and held on as he tossed the other end to the boy to help him climb up the water feature.
But the boy slipped on the rocks and lost hold of the shirt as the water swept him downstream.
Cummings jumped in after him.
“Man, it was a struggle like no other; we really was tussling in that water trying to like stay above,” he said.
Cummings said he continued to struggle until he found footing in the riverbed.
“I touched, and I pushed up on the kid with all I’d like tried to separate us. It took a lot of strength, I’m serious, and I separated us, pushed and then I got to him again, and we swam over to the pillar that was supporting the bridge,” he said.
That’s where he said he found footing, again on a rock, as he put the boy on his hip as they held the side of the Main Street bridge for support.
Firefighters rescued the pair just minutes later.
“I wasn’t really actually thinking about myself and my safety. I just did see like this kid, and he was all alone,” Cummings said.
He later told News Center 7’s John Bedell that he saw the boy briefly after firefighters pulled them from the river.
Cummings said he remembers patting the boy on the back, telling him he was alright and good job.
Some people call Cummings a hero. He said he appreciates that but thinks what he did was “normal,” saying, “we should be able to do these things for each other.”
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