Teenager keeps his cool as he rescues girl from rushing water

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Like many people in Yarmouth County on Monday, cooling off was on Jake Falls mind when the 18-year-old and his grandmother pulled up to a beach area near the dam in Tusket Falls. The temperature was exceptionally hot for June 9 and Falls had decided to go for a swim.

Keeping cool, in turned out, was exactly was Falls ended up doing.

And for that a 16-year-old girl owes him her thanks, if not her life.

Falls and his grandmother had literally just pulled up when some young people came running over, frantically looking for help for their friend who had been pulled in a spillway of the Nova Scotia Power hydro dam by a strong undercurrent. With the water powerfully rushing past her, she was clinging to a concrete post, which was the only thing preventing her from plunging into the concrete spill box below, where more swirling water threatened her harm.

“I was looking at the situation, saw her hanging on the pole, her friends looked a little lost, they had this rope, I was looking at it seeing how tight it was. They were saying they were afraid it might rip. I thought, that’s not good for us,” Falls said in an interview on Tuesday. “But it got worse for her, she started slipping.”

As his grandmother called 911, Falls knew he had to spring into action. But getting to where the girl was wasn’t easy. The area is fenced off, with locked gates – their purpose being to keep people out of an area that is considered quite dangerous. Falls had to get around the fence, cross over a fish ladder and climb over the gate to get to the top of the dam where the girl was.

“I laid down and I could see her…and I saw that I could grab her. I grabbed one of her arms, grabbed the other one, got my feet going and just pulled her up,” says the Grade 12 Yarmouth high student.

It may sound simple, but it was far from that. Falls estimates it probably took five minutes to pull the girl to safety. The rushing water, he said, was so powerful. The girl kept slipping.

“At first it looked like an easy situation. She was there, waiting for some help. But as time went by she slipped around, she was on the edge, and that’s when you realize you don’t have the world to wait,” Falls said.

He knew his grandmother was calling for help, but he had no idea how long it would take for help to arrive. And with the gates seemingly separating the world from where he was lying on the dam – and not being able to communicate with his grandmother as she was on the phone – he knew when it came to saving the girl, he was it.

Asked if she was panicking, he said she seemed scared.

“She was really worried when I was holding her and her feet were touching the water as it was rushing by. She was just screaming but I told her, ‘I’ve got you’, and I just pulled her up.

“I remember when I had both her hands and her feet were dangling against the water it just hit you again, the situation…Afterwards it was just ‘Wow.’ I sat down for a little bit, thinking about what could have happened.”

The girl, who Falls doesn’t know, thanked and hugged him.

After Falls pulled the girl to safety, he saw volunteer firefighters coming towards them and police arriving on the scene.

While thankful this incident had a fortunate outcome, police, fire department and Nova Scotia Power officials are using it as a means of reminding the public about the danger associated with swimming close to the dam.

Falls himself said that’s an area of water he never ventures into, opting instead for a safer swimming option further away. He also thinks people should exercise extreme caution around the dam.

“When you’re looking around and you see a dangerous area, it’s not the best place to be,” he said.

Meanwhile, the next morning at school Falls’ friends were pretty impressed with his heroics.

“They all came up to me and said, ‘Oh Mr. Hero, what’s going on?’ They were all asking me for the story,” he said

Asked how he feels about being called a hero, Falls said it’s a pretty big title, but he feels his actions can live up to it.

“I was helping somebody in need, that’s a big thing,” he said. “You never think you’ll ever do that.”

(See related story in Yarmouth County section of NovaNewsNow.com about the rescue and the safety warnings officials are issuing.)