Members of a construction crew are being credited with saving a life Tuesday afternoon in downtown Des Moines. A small boat capsized on the Des Moines River, dumping a man and woman into the water.
The Des Moines Fire Rescue team responded and found the man’s body downstream, but the woman, who was wearing a life jacket, was still alive and trapped in the swirling water below the dam.
The rescue boat couldn’t go in and the woman was too weak to grab a line — so a nearby construction crew sprang into action. A workman was suspended from a crane and lowered down a long cable to the woman. He grabbed her and then the crane swung her into the rescue boat nearby. She’s was last reported in stable condition.
The woman’s husband was also in the boat and drowned before rescuers could get to him. The two have not been identified.