Scouts tell of dramatic river rescue

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thirteen-year-old Alex Ciraulo was paddling his canoe with a fellow Boy Scout when he saw a man fishing for trout.

Then he saw the man flip over and his head go under water. The inner tube he was fishing from kept floating in the chilly water of a remote spot on the Chattahoochee River.

“I knew I had to jump in to get him,” Alex said Sunday, a day after a dramatic rescue that saved the 56-year-old man’s life.

Troop 1534 out of Buford head outdoors for monthly outings, and the adult leaders make sure the scouts get plenty of training to be ready for anything. That training — and pure gut instinct — kicked in when six scouts and two adult leaders stopped to help a man’s life.

Alex tried unsuccessfully to flip the man over. Fellow scouts Tyler Meuller and Jimmy Corbett also jumped in the water. It took the man’s adult son and two scouts to pull him to safety, and he fell unconscious.

“His head was still in the water while we dragged him,” Alex said.

By this time, an adult scout leader had called for emergency teams to respond. But the remote location on the river, between Ga. 20 and Settles Bridge Road, made it difficult for authorities to reach the scene initially.

“The great thing was that he came to and he started talking,” said Scoutmaster Todd Newman. Newman said some of the boys involved with the rescue may receive badges for their heroics.

“He was a mess, but he was alive.” said Josh Swargzell, who waved his paddles to help guide a rescue helicopter to the right spot. Josh, 12, said a day after the rescue, he could still hardly believe he’d played a part.

“Was I really there?” Josh said he asked himself. “Did this really happen or was I just really bored and imagining things?”

But for the man whose life was saved, the rescue was very real. The unidentified man, who walked himself to the ambulance to be transported, is expected to make a full recovery.

“I would’ve been clueless if it weren’t for the Boy Scouts,” Josh said.