Dramatic rescue sees heroic family save eight from fiery shipwreck

AN off-duty Guardia Civil officer and his two children saved eight people from a fiery shipwreck in a Caceres dam.

The off-duty officer was canoeing with his children when they were rocked by an explosion on a boat anchored some 150 metres away.

After hearing screams from distraught boaters they rowed their canoes towards the burning vessel, finding a man and woman with a baby on board and two young children in the surrounding waters. After rowing back and forth to the shore in tandem with his eldest son, they were able to save all five of the victims.

As if this wasn’t enough stress for one day, the officer and his son were called on again soon after when two fire-fighters and a dam employee were stranded after trying to put out the burning ship wreck before it reached land. It seems that, as the fire-fighters frantically tried to extinguish the flames, the fire-stricken boat rapidly started to sink, dragging down the fire-fighters’ zodiac raft with it. 

After jumping into the water the three were picked up by the Guardia Civil and his son in their canoes, bringing the total lives saved to eight. Ambulances soon arrived at the shore and the initial victims were taken to the nearby Hospital Virgen de la Montaña de Cáceres to be treated for burns suffered from the explosion.

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