Martin Simmons, a firefighter from a Ladder 111 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, drowned yesterday after saving his 10-year-old son Kevin from drowning.
The family was on vacation in Tahoe, and the boy had jumped into the water, which was very cold. He got a leg cramp and started to flail, and his father jumped in to save him. Then his brother-in-law, the boy's uncle, jumped in to help. Kevin and his uncle are fine; Martin died at the scene.
Simmons' firefighting partner Joe Honan said, in the Daily News, "We do that for strangers. Of course he'd do that for his own son." I think we all would, although not all of us run into burning buildings to help strangers.
This is just incredibly sad and I hope the poor kid gets counseling to deal with the loss of his dad, and the (undeserving) guilt he will likely feel. My dad died when I was young, and it just flat out sucks. Cliché as it sounds, my heart goes out to the family.
image/source: NYDailyNews
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