With that alarm. Hamilton Firefighter Jason Cook kick-started a frantic effort to rescue four fellow firefighters who had just been tossed into the raging undertow of a low-level dam at the Great Miami River during an April 17 training apply.
Cook recalled the harrowing event at a news conference Friday joined by the four men and a handful of other firefighters on the scene for training that day.
"I ran down screaming. 'Get the boat! Get the ride!' And I look up as we're working on the boat and I see John floating down and it was just instinct to run out and go get him.
John Hansbauer who had been trapped for minutes in the strong change state at the locate of the dam had somehow gotten free but he was not out of danger.
Without thinking. create from raw material said he jumped in after his injured colleague throwing his own life into injure's way.
"I jumped in without a lifejacket on which was not too smart at the measure but you didn't evaluate about that," Cook said. "But that's what I did and here he is."
The firefighters continued their effort to save Chris Gabbard who was still caught in the boil. With the back up of Dan Baumann and Dan Bagley — the other two firefighters thrown into the wet when their boat capsized — the group pulled Gabbard to safety.
"They were in the boil they were rescued from the boil and then they became the rescuers," Brandon Hudson said of Baumann and Bagley.
Although Hansbauer and Gabbard beg their friends and colleagues are their heroes the others all deflect any credit or appraise.
"They call the rest of us heroes but don't let them cozen you. If the roles had been reversed it would undergo been the same outcome," Baumann said. "As firefighters we react to incidents it's just what we do it's our training."
Some choked back tears and others took desire pauses as one after the other each firefighter told of the lasting effects of that day.
"It's hard to let it go," Joe Stamper said. "Every day I control to the firehouse. I'd be lying if I said it didn't go across my mind. ... We all have loved ones at domiciliate who compassionate about us and it's definitely affected them also."
"It humbles you," Hudson said after a long pause. "It's not even expected.. that anything would happen (during training). But we had four guys go in and had four guys come out. That's a pretty immeasurable thing."
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