Omaha Fire & Rescue responded to a water rescue Monday afternoon at Standing Bear Lake in northwest Omaha. A family of five was out on a canoe when it turned over. No one had a life jacket on.
Many people were out enjoying the weather on Memorial Day. But the actions of two teenagers may have saved a family that had their canoe tip this afternoon.
“I was helping my sister stay up,” Martin Lagunas said.
Lagunas and his family were on a canoe when something went wrong. The boat tipped over and the family did not have life jackets.
Kyle Knudson and Sashti Kehn saw it happen.
“The older people were trying to hold up the kids from the water and make sure they were okay,” Kehn said.
Right after someone called 911, Knudson and Kehn saw a girl go under water.
“I didn’t want to make it worse by making someone else they had to save. But I figured I could swim better than them,” Knudson said.
Kehn grabbed a little girl, and Knudson went to the rest.
“I'm proud of what I did and I think the police and rescue crews would have been able to do a better job if we had just called earlier but I'm glad we did it,” said Knudson.
Rescue crews arrived shortly after the two jumped in to help, and everyone got out safely. The family was shaken up, but happy things weren’t worse.
“They saved life,” one man said.
“I just wanted to make sure everybody was okay. It's your natural instinct to help somebody when they need it so I just went in to help," said Kehn
This incident was a good reminder of why people need a life jacket. They could save your life.
