NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The chief of the New Castle Fire Department helped rescue a 16-year-old boy from Big Run Creek after the boy got caught in heavy waters Saturday night.
Austin Lample of Ellwood City was swimming in the creek with friends when the water swelled from recent storms.
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“I was just going to grab a tree branch and try to get over. I didn't expect the current to be that strong,” Lample said.
He clung to the branch and started screaming for help as his friends made it to shore.
At about that time, New Castle Fire Chief Mark Panella was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue with his window down and heard the boy screaming for help.
“I was getting ready to leave a call, had my window down and I heard a kid yell that he was in the creek,” Panella said.
The fire chief called for ropes and threw one out to Lample.
"One of our guys jumped into the water and brought him back," Panella said.
Lample was checked out by paramedics at the scene and determined to be fine, but he said he learned a life-saving lesson about playing around water.
“Don't do it,” he said. “Just don't do it.”
WPXI
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