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RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — A man leaped into a flooded drainage area Friday and saved a 9-year-old girl after noticing a boy crying and pointing to his sister in the cold water.

Richland Hills Fire Chief David Anderson says Brittany Williams, her 7-year-old brother, Hayden, and good Samaritan Richard Harper, whose "heroic efforts" saved her, were transported to hospitals.

Anderson told The Associated Press that Harper and the two children are not believed to have life-threatening injuries.

The children were heading home from school around 3:45 p.m. Friday when they "climbed down into the drain to walk in the water," Anderson said. "She lost her footing and slid."

The Dallas-Fort Worth area has received several inches of rain since Tuesday, causing flooding.

The water was less than 2 feet deep, but there is a dropdown in the open drainage system and a lot of water pressure, Anderson said.

Hayden climbed out on his own. Brittany was clinging to the concrete of the open system, which leads to an enclosed area, Anderson said.

Harper, who'd been driving by with another person, jumped into the water and held on to the girl and a concrete pipe until rescuers arrived, the fire chief said.

"He was in the right place at the right time. His heroic efforts definitely saved her life," Anderson said.

Temperatures were in the low 40s.




I wanna be the passerby that saves a 9-year-old's life.

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai was called in after the 11-year-old boy's teachers and mother failed to coax him off the ledge on Monday, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"He was nervous about the first day at school, and he was asking for his mother," Somchai said. "He cried and refused to let any of us get close to him."

Overhearing a conversation between the boy's mother and his teachers about his love for comics and superheroes, Somchai rushed back to the fire station to change into a Spider-Man costume before swinging into action.

"I told him Spider-Man is here to save you. No monster will hurt you now," Somchai said. "Then I told him to walk slowly toward me. I was very nervous that he might have slipped if he got too excited and ran."

Somchai, who keeps costume of Spider-Man and a Japanese superhero Ultraman to liven up fire drills at schools, said the teary-eyed boy broke into a smile and started walking into his arms.


Seriously, that's an amazing story.
I wanna be that firefighter.