Fla. firefighters honored for water rescue

By Jerome Burdi
The Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — With 6- to 8-foot waves crashing on them, Fire-Rescue workers pushed through the inlet to save people whose boat had capsized.

For their bravery in rescuing three people that Memorial Day weekend, the firefighters — Capt. Todd Stewart, Donnie Horn and Tomas Martin — received their department's 2008 Firefighter of the Year Award.

The men surveyed the inlet earlier that day, May 26, and hoped there wouldn't be any calls.

"We said, 'If we get a call today, we're not going to go out,'" Martin said.

The police have a boat better equipped for rescues in rough waters than the Fire-Rescue Department's 28-foot rigid-hull inflatable.

But, as firefighters say, instinct took over.

"When the call comes down, you just go," Horn said.

They were sitting down to a steak dinner when the call came.

Boater Juan Ras, 48, of Plantation, took his 32-foot boat out on the clear, windy day but decided the waves were too strong and tried to head back, police said. That's when another wave came smashing in, flipping the boat and sending six people without life vests, including a pregnant woman, into the ocean. They were about 100 yards south of the inlet. To keep the Fire-Rescue boat from capsizing, Horn pushed the boat into oncoming waves.

"I wanted to keep the wind and waves hitting my bow," he said, fearing a sideswiping wave would leave the rescuers in need of a rescue. When they got to the capsized boat, Ras and two women were hanging on a boat-tube. While taking in water, the Fire-Rescue workers pulled all three into their boat, including the pregnant woman.

"They were hysterical, they were crying," Martin said.

The women, Ana Balcazar, who was pregnant, and Orfa Coral, 57, both of Oakland Park, were taken to the hospital but survived. They could not be reached to comment Saturday, despite attempts by phone.

Of the other three on the capsized boat: one person had made it to shore with the help of a personal watercraft rider, and a private boat rescued two others.

Boca Raton Fire-Rescue spokesman Frank Correggio said the agency trains for water rescues but doesn't often get calls for them.


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