A teen cyclist who saved a girl from drowning Tuesday evening credits his strong legs for the rescue.
Andrew Ross, 19, was playing catch with his girlfriend at Kaministiquia River Heritage Park after 5:30 p.m. when the pair heard an older man screaming for help in the vicinity of the James Whalen Tug.
When he approached them, Ross, a student in the police foundations program, was asked if he could swim because he was told there was a woman drowning in the river. Thinking but for a moment how cold the spring water might be, Ross dove in and pulled the woman to a ladder hanging from the boardwalk.
"I just had to keep her up. All I thought was get her to the ladder," Ross said, still shivering slightly in his wet clothes. "I was scared for her."
By the time he got to the ladder, Ross said police were there to help him get the woman, who fire officials said they believe to be in her early 20s, out of the water.
Ross said the woman was weak and looked to have been in the water for quite some time.
Fire officials said the woman was taken to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, where she will likely be treated for Hypothermia. Thunder Bay Police later reported she is listed in good condition at the hospital, but determined she was intoxicated at the time she fell in the river.
It was the second time since Friday she had been pulled from the river while in that condition.
Ross, who has no formal rescue training, said it must be his training with Thunder Bay Cycling Club that gave him the strength to rescue the girl.
"You don’t like seeing somebody drowning," Ross said. "Anybody would have done it, I’m sure, who was there."
