'My instinct was to go': Firefighter recalls boat rescue

(NewsNation) — Texas firefighter Jason Horne is being hailed as a hero after rescuing three children from a capsized boat on the Fourth of July.

The Midlothian Fire Department firefighter and medic was off duty, celebrating the holiday with his family on his boat on Alvarado Park Lake outside Fort Worth. He was heading back to shore to drop off his 12-year-old daughter when they came upon a capsized 16-foot fishing boat. People were screaming that kids were trapped underneath. And without hesitation, Horne dove in.

“There wasn’t a lot to think about. It was just kind of a reaction,” Horne told NewsNation’s Hena Doba on Tuesday. “My instinct was to go.”

Horne, 50, said it was dark under the boat, and the water was already murky, so he couldn’t see the children. Instead, he had to depend on touch alone to find and pull out each child.

“The first young man, I reached up and just happened to find his life jacket and was able to pull him back to the surface,” Horne said.

He told The Washington Post that the boy was coughing and conscious when he pulled him out, so he handed him off to a nearby adult and dove back in.

“The little girl, when I dove under the boat, I reached up, and I felt her leg and was able to pull her underneath,” he said.

When he reached the surface, he told The Washington Post the little girl wasn’t breathing. Horne popped up onto the overturned boat and began performing CPR. After several rounds, she started gasping for air.

The third victim, a little boy, was actually pulled out by another person on the other side of the boat. However, he was tangled in rope and had no pulse. Horne was able to get the boy onto a passerby’s pontoon boat and started CPR as they drove them to shore, where medics were waiting. By the time they arrived, the boy was breathing again.

Horne also gave credit to his daughter, Emilie, who knew exactly what to do while Horne was in the water.

“She picked up my phone and called 911 and stayed with them until we started moving towards the shore,” he said. “She got everybody coming that way. And she was my hero.”

Horne said the main reason the children are alive is that they were wearing life jackets when the boat capsized.

“I’ve always taught my kids that if you have a life jacket on and something happens, I can find you because you’re going to float,” Horne said. “I believe with my whole heart, if those three children were not wearing life jackets, that would have been a recovery and not a rescue.”

Horne says it’s been hectic since the rescues and that he’s still processing the whole ordeal.

“I got a lot of people reaching out to me, a lot of news and social media things,” he said. “So it took me a little while to kind of understand and realize what had happened.”

As for the children, they have all recovered and are doing well. Horne was even able to meet the little boy he resuscitated.

“It was great to see him. Precious little boy,” Horne said. “I got to pick him up and hold him and talk to him a little bit. So it was great to see them. It was pretty heartwarming.”

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