For years, Calvin Lyles and Ron Coddington were neighbors who waved across the wide canal that separated their homes. They didn't even know each other's names.
Sunday, they found themselves face-to-face in that canal, working together to rescue a 78-year-old man who had driven his car into the water.
''It was a heck of a place to meet him, but I'm sure glad he was there,'' said Coddington.
Shortly before noon, Lyles, a retired fire-rescue lieutenant from Washington, D.C., was making lunch in the kitchen of his Boca Raton apartment. Coddington, 52, an environmental restoration contractor, was in the back of his Deerfield Beach home across the Hillsboro Canal, cleaning up in preparation for Thanksgiving.
Lyles, 51, heard a loud sound. Coddington heard a clunk. It was a Ford Taurus driving over the seawall from the Boca side of the canal.
Boca Raton police said Ennio Vigliar drove the car from the parking lot of the Boca Bayou condominiums into the canal. It was unclear what caused the mishap.
Coddington jumped into the water and swam about 80 feet to where the car floated. He could see Vigliar's eyes.
''I watched him go under water,'' Coddington said.
Lyles, from his kitchen, watched Coddington race toward the water. He saw the car's trunk sticking out of the canal and joined in the rescue.
Coddington got there first, found the driver's side door handle under water and opened it. He dived under and tried to pull Vigliar out.
''I think it was at the end of my breath when I realized that his seat belt was still on,'' Coddington said. As he swam up for another breath, Vigliar grabbed his arm.
''It sends chills up my spine,'' Coddington said later.
When Coddington came up, Lyles dived down and was able to dislodge Vigliar from the car.
''It was amazing. I couldn't believe it,'' Lyles said. ``He was conscious but disoriented. I didn't have to do CPR or anything. . . I was breathing harder than he was.''
Both men figured the effort took only a minute. They stood on top of the submerged car, Lyles holding Vigliar, and a boat helped get the man to shore in the 500 block of Northeast Sixth Avenue in Deerfield Beach.
Once on shore, Coddington asked Vigliar how he was.
'All he said was, `I'm wet,' '' Coddington said.
Vigliar was taken to North Broward Medical Center. His injuries were not believed to be serious.
Deerfield Beach Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Tom Ray said that if Coddington and Lyles hadn't jumped in, Vigliar could have been in the water for six or seven minutes before rescue workers could get to him.
''Was there some danger involved? Sure. But they saw somebody in trouble and they jumped in and helped,'' Ray said. ``They threw their own safety to the side, and it probably saved this man's life.''
