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JACKSON, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A woman almost died Friday when her canoe overturned on the Battenkill, but thanks to the quick actions of a sheriff’s deputy, she survived.

It happened near Foster Lane in Jackson, where a canoe carrying two women overturned, pinning one of them pinned against a tree.

That’s when Deputy Sheriff Todd Riche immediately jumped in and pulled the women to safety.

“It was a scary situation there for a while,” said Riche.

Seven hours after the incident, Deputy Sheriff Riche reflected on the call he was dispatched to Friday morning.

When he arrived on-scene, he heard a woman screaming for help, trying to keep her head above the fast current of the water.

“I crossed the river, took my duty belt off, and proceeded to go into the river,” said Riche.

Riche says the woman was temporarily in pain from the pressure of the water, panicking her friends, who traveled all the way from Pennsylvania to enjoy the morning on the water.

“I actually laid down the male subject, who the victim’s boyfriend, on his back,” said Riche. “And at first I put my arm under her right arm to kind of relieve him from holding her up out of the water.”

The water level in the river was running high after the rainstorm that hit Jackson Thursday night.

Riche says this particular location is an especially tricky part of the Battenkill, notorious for accidents.

He says he’s been receiving a lot of compliments and pats on the back for what he did, but to him, it was just a necessary part of the his job.

“I just happened to be working and in the right spot at the right time,” he said.

Similar incidents of canoes being overturned after a rainstorm have been common in the past.

Rich says he always tries to remind people to be mindful of the water before hopping in.

“I mean, if there’s a rain storm the night before, you definitely want to check the river levels and how dirty the water is because that’s usually a good indicator of whether the water level is up higher than it normally is,” he says.

The victim was luckily not seriously hurt.