Just another day at the Lake...

Not really!

We had an awesome day at the Lake! For the first time since we had the boat, my Parents agreed to join us! We put Gavin down for an early nap, gathered the towels, sunscreen, munchies and drinks and had everything ready to go for when Gavin woke up. We wait for Keith to finish cleaning the boat and listened to Gavin, for what SEEMED like 30 minutes but was probably closer to 10 minutes, say "I go on da boat!", "I go on da boat" over and over again until time to leave.

We loaded everyone up, filled up with plenty of gas for the day and we were off...Lake Ray Roberts and "Kelly's Cove" as I have previously named our destination location! We put in, anchored, swam, I LEARNED TO SURF!!!!, anchored some more, swam some more...or what Gavin calls swimming would be jumping off the swim platform into my arms in the water a MILLION times! Then it was clearly time for someone (Gavin) to head in for the evening. Mamaw and Pappy took him in for a bath, some snuggle time and bed. They were keeping him for us on Sunday so we could have some adult lake time. So, we took the three of them into the Marina and dropped them off. Thinking about if we wanted to head out too or go back into the cove for a few more hours...we decided to head back out for a few hours, and it was probably a good thing we did. We wake boarded and hung out, just the two of us, for another hour or so! Finally, Keith was wanting to head in to meet some guys and watch the fights and I was going to meet some girls for some girl time.

Around 7:00 p.m. we headed back to the Marina and just as we hit the "No Wake" buoy, we heard a loud PoP...we turned and looked and things were flying off of a nearby boat and it seemed to be steaming...then more and more, until we realized it was smoke!! So, we realized the boat was on fire and headed over to lend some assistance and our fire extinguisher. We passed some kids and a women in the water and made sure they had life vests and rushed on to give the guy on the boat our extinguisher. Keith threw it to him and he used it all up in a matter of a minute. When Keith realized that the fire was NOT going out, he begged and pleaded for the guy to just let it go and get on our boat, for safety. When Keith finally pulled the guy off the boat, it was a matter of seconds and the entire boat was full of high flames!!! At this point, I was yelling at Keith to get us out of there. I had never been around a live fire, much less a boat fire and didn't know if it would explode once it reached the fuel tank. So, we backed off quickly and turned around to go check on the kids and woman, still in the water. The woman kept yelling to us that the kids were injured and burned. So, Keith pulled them both out of the water and up onto the back platform of the boat. Whoa!! One kid was burned, badly. His shorts were burned off, his life vest was melted. His hair, in the back was burned off and most of the skin on his back and back of his arms was hanging off. I quickly called 9-1-1 while Keith assessed the severity of the burns and attended to the kids. Once he made sure everyone was stable and we received direction from dispatch, we headed into the Marina to meet the paramedics. We kept trying to get them to drink as much water as possible to replace the fluids that they were quickly losing. It was the best we could do until we could reach someone who could start an IV. At one point, the kid was pulling his skin off and laughing about it...until he looked up to Keith and said, "I am in shock, aren't I?" and Keith said, "Yes, and you need to keep drinking that water." CRAZY!!! We reached the dock and Keith took both kids and the Dad up to meet the paramedics. Well, as it turns out, Sanger and Pilot Point Fire Departments only had one paramedic on duty, so the Sanger Asst. Chief asked Keith to step in and help until he could get Careflight landed. The one kid that was burned 70% of his body, for sure, needed to be flown by Careflight to Parkland. The other kid could have been ground transported, but I think since we were so far away and with limited resources, they just flew both kids. Keith gave a witness statement and at 9:00, we finally left the Marina. It was going to be too late for me to meet the girls, so I just helped Keith with the boat and we both headed in for some food, beer and fights! I was still shaking and definitely needed a beer.

I have never seen someone burned so badly. I have never, before this day, called 9-1-1. I have never had so much adrenaline rushed through my body in matter of minutes. I told Keith that I had no idea how he did this, day in and day out, for a living and his response to me was, "Now, do you see why I love my job." I guess I now know why he gets antsy when they are NOT busy...there is no adrenaline to live on. My heart sank for that family...having to watch their boat go up in flames and sink and their two children rushed off to Parkland by Careflight...and that poor kid will be in so much pain for such a long time. It just makes me sick. But, for some reason, we were there for them, at the right time and place and they were blessed with Keith's training.

We tried to check with Careflight, the next day, to see how the kid that was burned so badly was doing, but they were out on a call. It seems they were pretty busy, the whole Memorial Day weekend. I think I saw news reports of two more that had drowned at Lake Grapevine, a boat crash and another drowning at Lake Lewisville. They say that Memorial Day Weekend seems to be the kick off to summer lake drownings. Count your Blessings!