By EMS1 Staff
CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — A firefighter-EMT turned into a victim in need when he and his friend became stranded at sea.
ABC Action News reported that volunteer firefighter-EMT Don Lohr was on a fishing trip with his friend when the boat’s engine failed
“It was just ‘wheeh, wheeh, wheeh!’” Lohr said.
Lohr said he had no cell service and asked his friend for a radio to call for help.
“But he says, ‘I have no radio’ and at that point I was like ‘Oh boy this isn’t good,’” Lohr said.
Lohr said as the sun was setting, the boat began taking on water.
“We were the victims right there,” he said, “We were up the proverbial creek without a paddle almost literally.”
Lohr and his friend used all of their flares to get help from fishing boats in the distance, but had no luck.
“Rescue whistle, life vest, tying shirts to fishing poles, waving them, they are just not seeing us,” he said.
The two spent the night on the boat, and in the morning they heard a Coast Guard plane far away. Lohr aimed a mirror at the sun and waved it around in an attempt to send a distress signal.
“He came over tipped his wing, at that point we kinda knew we were going to be OK,” Lohr said.
A private boat was waved down by the rescue pilot to help the men, who had spent 24 hours on the boat and drifted 40 miles from where they began.
https://www.facebook.com/LisaLane1/posts/10155828927539313