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Man Dead After Water Rescue at Nay Aug Park

SCRANTON — A man from Scranton is dead following a water rescue at Nay Aug Park Sunday evening. Fire crews rushed to the park after a total of five people...

SCRANTON -- A man from Scranton is dead following a water rescue at Nay Aug Park Sunday evening.

Fire crews rushed to the park after a total of five people reportedly went into the water at the gorge.

Officials said a man and his two children were walking along near the Davis Trail shortly before 5 p.m. when the older child fell into the water. The man jumped in to save the child, around 10 years of age, but didn't know how to swim. A hiker and then two college students also jumped in to help save lives.

"They're heroes. The three of them for jumping in there like that. That's pretty brave," said Scranton Fire Superintendent Pat DeSarno.

Everyone except the father was rescued from the water and treated on scene or at the hospital.

It happened during daylight, but when the sun went down dive crews and firefighters brought in lights to help look for the missing father. Crews no longer called it a rescue, but a recovery.

"There are guys in the water right now doing a grid search making their way back to the falls," DeSarno said.

Rescuers took the victim`s other son, a toddler around the age of two, to safety while the search continued in the sometimes deep waters.

Crews recovered the man's body just before 10 p.m. The Lackawanna County coroner identified him as Robert Kehoe, Jr. of Scranton.

Experts on scene do not know how the child first ended up in the water, but people who normally hit the trails say it can be quite treacherous.

"We walked down there a lot in the summertime. You don't dare go down there when it's wet because you can be looking the wrong way and you can go right over the ledge. You have to be paying attention down there all the time," said Tony White of Scranton.

 

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