Prison inmates on a work crew dove into a freezing, fast-moving creek to save three brothers whose kayak capsized on a creek in Washington state.
The boys, 8, 10 and 16, were kayaking down Salmon Creek in southwest Washington at around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday when the craft flipped and tossed them into the water, local FOX 12 reported.
A crew of about 10 inmates from Larch Corrections Center, in nearby Yacolt, was doing supervised maintenance work in a public park near the creek and heard the boy calling for help.
"We just thought it was some kids screaming until we seen their two heads bobbing in the water with the canoe upside down," inmate Nelson Pettis, 37, told FOX 12.
"They were coming down over flooded Salmon Creek. It was raging pretty fast."
Pettis said he dove into the water and let the current take him to a spot downstream from the boys where it was shallow enough to steady himself.
They actually came to me right there," he told the station. "Right then, the current swept me from underneath my feet and I grabbed onto the kids and got them to a little island in the middle of the river."
Another crew member, Larry Bohn, 29, jumped in the water and helped Pettis bring the boys ashore.
When fire crews arrived, Jon Fowler, 29, helped inflate their rescue boat and then helped them carry the 10-year-old to an ambulance.
"They were really scared," Bohn said. "They kept telling us 'thank you, thank you' all over again."
Once ashore, the boys and two of the inmates were taken to a local hospital and treated for mild hypothermia.
No one involved suffered any serious injuries.
The inmates, who are serving time for non-violent crimes, said they were doing what anyone else in their situation would have done.
"You see three helpless kids in a river, you help," Fowler told FOX 12.
"Just because we're incarcerated doesn't mean we're bad people. We made some bad choices in our lives, but we're still, we're just like everybody else."
Fowler and Bohn were jailed for stealing cars, while Pettis was serving time for drug possession and weapons charges, prison spokeswoman Heather Simms told the Daily News.
Bohn and Pettis were set to be released in June and November, while Fowler is scheduled for release in May 2014.
Simms said the trio would receive a letter of praise from the assistant secretary of prisons. Prison officials were also looking for a way to honor them.
"The boys' father wanted to do something for the guys up here, and there’s been talk about doing follow up with boys coming up here to be reunited with them," Simms said. "We definitely want to do something else."
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