Jason Horne, a 50-year-old firefighter and paramedic, was boating on Lake Alvarado Park in Texas with his 12-year-old daughter Emilie when, on July 4, he heard desperate screams. A boat carrying nine people had just capsized, and three children were trapped beneath the hull.
He did not wait for emergency crews. He plunged into the water again and again. He first pulled out a boy who was still breathing, then an unconscious girl whom he revived with CPR on the hull of the capsized boat. The third, tangled in an anchor rope, came out without a pulse — and Horne brought him back with his own hands.
Meanwhile, Emilie called 911 without taking her eyes off her father. All three children arrived at the hospital alive. Alvarado police described what happened as an act of heroism that no one in that community will forget.
