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Off-duty firefighter rescues man from submerged car

It wasn’t his first off-duty water rescue, but it was the first time his four children got to see their father in action

The Dayton Beach News-Journal

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Volusia County firefighter Lt. Jeremiah Greathouse was on vacation in St. Augustine with his family, about to do some back-to-school shopping for his kids, when they watched a car hop a curb and drive straight into a retention pond.

“I told my wife to call 9-1-1 and just dropped what I was doing,” Greathouse said in a phone interview Saturday. He said he and a couple of good Samaritans immediately went into the murky retention pond Friday afternoon near U.S. 1 and State Road 312 and could see the four-door sedan was filling up with water while an elderly man in the driver’s seat was still inside.

“These were just people who were driving down the road, and they didn’t hesitate,” Greathouse said of the good Samaritans. Greathouse said he told the driver to turn the car back on and attempt to use the power locks and open the door. “It was a little chaotic,” Greathouse said. “The window went down part of the way, and as soon as it did the car flooded and went under.”

Full story: Off-duty Volusia firefighter rescues man from submerged car

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