{"id":13593,"date":"2016-01-05T14:07:51","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T14:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/?p=13593"},"modified":"2016-01-05T14:07:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T14:07:51","slug":"woman-rescued-from-canal-by-off-duty-firefighter-it-was-meant-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/?p=13593","title":{"rendered":"Woman rescued from canal by off-duty firefighter: \u2018It was meant to be\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read the full story HERE\u203a\u203a<\/a><\/p>\n

By Lulu Ramadan<\/a><\/p>\n

(myPalmBeachPost<\/a>) \u2013 Jennifer Green shut her eyes and cried out for help as murky water slowly poured through the shattered window of her car.<\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t swim, her leg was caught under the seat and there appeared to be no way out of what seemed like a bottomless canal along Florida\u2019s Turnpike near Boca Raton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI closed my eyes so I wouldn\u2019t see the water flowing in, flowing in, flowing in,\u201d Green, 64, recalled from the horrific Dec. 1 incident. \u201cI prayed. There was nothing to do but pray.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green suddenly felt someone tugging her body through the wreck. Paula Ursini, an off-duty firefighter from Wellington, heard Green\u2019s cries and spotted the car sinking while she was driving to work at Boca Raton Fire Rescue.<\/p>\n

Instincts kicked in. Ursini pulled off her boots, threw her purse aside and swam toward Green\u2019s cries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea how deep it was until I jumped in and couldn\u2019t feel the bottom,\u201d Ursini said.<\/p>\n

After pulling Green from the canal near Glades Road, Ursini clutched Green on the embankment and watched the car fully submerge into the water.<\/p>\n

Green cried into Ursini\u2019s shoulder \u2014 \u201cMy hero,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Green doesn\u2019t remember how her car ended up in the canal \u2014 only the crash, breaking the driver\u2019s side window and shouting for help.<\/p>\n

Since the rescue, Ursini has been touted as a savior by her fire department and Green\u2019s family. Green says she\u2019s eternally grateful for Ursini.<\/p>\n

But Ursini says Green saved her life too.<\/p>\n

Amid a divorce, Ursini, a mother of two boys, was questioning her career as a firefighter and whether she should stay in Wellington, thousands of miles from her family in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling lost,\u201d she said. \u201cI was asking God for a sign that everything was going to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ursini later learned that the woman she pulled from the canal was a nurse, a foster mother who adopted a child with physical disabilities and a grandmother to a newborn 1-week-old at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I could save someone who saved so many other people throughout her life is just incredible to me,\u201d Ursini said. \u201cIt\u2019s like we were kindred spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ursini\u2019s training taught her to wait for back-up during rescues, but in this case, she knew time was critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been that type of person that stops and helps. I just never thought of putting myself in danger,\u201d Ursini said. \u201cI just saw this woman and knew she was going to die if I didn\u2019t do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ursini had trouble pulling Green to land during the rescue. Green was panicking and flailing in the water, so Ursini shouted for help. A bearded man in all white clothing jumped into the water and helped pull the women to shore, she recalled.<\/p>\n

When they got to the embankment, he disappeared, she said.<\/p>\n

Green heard the man\u2019s voice and felt him pull her to shore, but never caught a glimpse of him, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was an angel,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

Ursini hopes to track the man down and thank him. She spent weeks after the rescue looking for Green. \u201cI just needed to hug her,\u201d she said. \u201cI just needed to know she was alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

They spoke on the phone and learned more about each other following the incident.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Read the rest of the story HERE\u203a\u203a<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the full story HERE\u203a\u203a By Lulu Ramadan (myPalmBeachPost) \u2013 Jennifer Green shut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13595,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13593\/revisions\/13595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}