A man will be honored Wednesday after saving distressed swimmer from drowning.
On May 3, at South Beach Park in Ft. Pierce, Kyle Castle had to swim about 50 yards out to realize what exactly he was up against.
“When I got there he was two-and-a-half, three times my size. It was tough,” Kyle said in an interview.
Kyle was at the beach with his friend from out of town, when a frantic fellow beachgoer asked them to call 911 to report a distressed swimmer.
“That’s when I looked out toward the water and I saw a gentleman flailing and yelling for help and I just got up and ran in,” he said.
With no lifeguard on duty, and a man pulled closer to death by a rigorous rip current, Kyle’s instinct kicked in.
“I just knew you were supposed to swim parallel to the shore if you’re in the rip current so that’s what I tried to do with him,” he said.
Once they cleared the undertow they inched back to land.
“When I got close to shore I asked the gentleman if he could stand and his legs were so tired he just immediately fell,” he said. “I pretty much collapsed right where I was.”
The first responders from fire station two in St. Lucie County treated the man and released him on scene.
He doesn’t know the man’s name and hasn’t heard from him since.
“There was no thought process. If it was me out there that’s what I would want somebody to do for me, so that’s what I did,” he said.
On Wednesday, the St. Lucie County Fire District will honor Kyle with citizen hero award at headquarters at 3 p.m. located at 5160 NW Milner Drive, Port St. Lucie.
