Nothing short of a miracle.
That's how a South Bay battalion chief is describing the quick action by first responders after a truck was hit on Highway 101 in Morgan Hill and ended up in a canal, taking on water and with a family trapped inside.
"A couple of persons screaming they need help," San Jose firefighter Antonio Lopez, who helped in the rescue, said Friday in an exclusive interview with NBC Bay Area. "And I heard the screaming from the people under the water already.
The victim's vehicle was traveling at the speed of traffic, so the victims not only survived the impact from that crash, but also several minutes in the water.
Images from the scene showed a truck with an entire family inside and submerged in a canal filled with water off Highway 101.
Lopez, who was off duty at the time, happened to be driving by when he saw what had happened. He and his brother, a firefighter in Peru, jumped in.
First they rescued the mom. They then learned there were children in car seats, so they dove in.
"I found the little arm of the baby, and somehow I figured out to pull out the girl," Lopez said. "There was another baby in the back, so I dove in and was capable to pull out the baby. Both of them was unconscious."
By that time, on-duty and off-duty CHP officers joined the rescue, as did Morgan Hill police officers.
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On the berm, at least two nurses and a surgeon, who also just happened to be driving by, performed CPR on the unconscious children.
Lopez then went back in with CHP to get the unconscious father.
All four victims I said to be now doing fine.
"It's a miracle and it's very heroic," said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Tim Main, who also responded to the scene. "If they had not gone into the vehicle and get them out, we would not have a resuscitation to do. It would have been a body recovery. We would have had to wait for a dive team and it would have been a very poor outcome."
Main said the heroic rescues and CPR saved lives that day.
"They brought them back to life," Main said. "They brought them back from the dead."
