Ohio Crews Rescue Three from River

June 17, 2009
A canoe overturned Tuesday evening and spilled three teens into the Great Miami River near the site of a water rescue the previous day.

CROSBY TOWNSHIP, Ohio --

A canoe overturned Tuesday evening and spilled three teens into the Great Miami River near the site of a water rescue the previous day.

Emergency crews responded around 5 p.m. to the scene of the capsized canoe near Blue Rock and East Miami River roads.

None of the teens was wearing life jackets, dispatchers said, and one of them hung onto a tree and two made their way to a sandbar.

Crews pulled the teens from the water by 6 p.m., and firefighters said they would not release them until their parents arrived.

A man and a teenager were pulled from the water Monday, and area residents said the water was high and running fast after recent rainfall.

One of the victims actually witnessed Monday's rescue.

He said he thought he could beat the river, but once again, the river won.

"We were just going down and all of a sudden water starts coming in and I knew we were going to lose it," Matthew Miller, 17, said.

"It tipped over. Somehow I was able to make it to hold onto the canoe. I looked to my left and nobody was up and then he came up."

However, the boys' other friend was nowhere in sight. Seconds after the two boys made it to shore the third teen surfaced and climbed into a tree.

The trio then waited for rescuers who were had been called out the previous day for similar reasons.

"Too rough -- absolutely too rough. We cannot walk in water above our knees and that stuff out there is chest deep," said Capt. Harold Lucas, of the Crosby Township Fire Department. "They wanted to challenge the same part of the river. So the river won two days in a row."

Tuesday's rescue took the work of two different departments.

Colerain had to use ropes to rescue one teen from the tree. Crosby Township was able to help the other two to safety on the other side of the river.

Copyright 2009 by WLWT.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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