Brave boy rescues woman and her dog in ditch ordeal
Published: February 17, 2006
A schoolboy has been hailed as a hero after leaping into freezing water to rescue a woman and her dog as they struggled in treacherous conditions.
Ashley Clark, 11, came to the aid of a stranger when she plunged into a ditch filled with water after slipping down a steep and muddy bank near Clematis Close, Driffield.
After dragging the dog back up the bank, the Driffield School pupil jumped into the knee-deep water to reach the woman’s mobile phone and call for an ambulance and the fire service.
Following her ordeal, the woman, who has asked not to be identified, praised Ashley as a hero.
Ashley, of Elizabeth Drive, Driffield, had been off school with a bout of flu but was feeling better and decided to go for a walk when the drama unfolded.
When he reached Clematis Close he dropped the rugby ball he was playing with in the water-filled ditch and went to get a stick to try to fish it out.
Then, seeing the woman in a potentially dangerous situation, Ashley quickly came to her aid.
He said: “It was quite steep and her dog was slipping down and it couldn’t get back up.
“I lowered myself down and got the dog and chucked it up on to the bank.
“As the woman leaned over to go and get it, she tumbled over and she fell. I had to go in to get her phone off her.
“I called her husband but she was just shaking, so I called an ambulance.”
A paramedic and two fire crews from Driffield were quickly on the scene and firefighters pulled the woman, who by then was freezing cold and in shock, to safety up the bank.
Ashley said: “Her husband just came running.
“He was really shocked because he thought she had suffered a really bad fall and thought she was badly injured.
“When the firemen got her out, she just said ‘thank you’ and she said I was a hero.
“I don’t know if anybody else would have managed to get the dog out but anybody else would have phoned an ambulance because she was in shock and looked frozen.”
Ashley said that when he returned home to tell his parents they did not believe him.
Steve Fuller, a spokesman for Humberside Fire And Rescue, said firefighters used a short extension ladder to reach the woman, who was believed to be fully-submerged in the water. He warned others not to jump into potentially lethal cold water without safety equipment but commended Ashley’s actions.
“The lad has reacted instinctively and has helped another member of the community.
“He has carried out an act of bravery but no member of the public should enter the water without the appropriate safety equipment.”
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