Still in his wet clothes, Gary Lyon left his home Saturday afternoon after rescuing three people and a dog on the Kiski River for another rescue involving three more people, this time on an inflatable tube shaped like a unicorn.
Three adults boarded the 12-foot unicorn in Vandergrift, planning to end their ride at the Leechburg boat ramp, but they couldn’t control their tube to get off the river and got hung up in submerged trees in one of the spots where kayakers were pinned just hours earlier, according to Lyon.
“It wasn’t even a boat,” Lyon said of the large tube, amazed it made its way safely for several miles on the swollen river.
The series of three rescues in one day set an all-time record for the Leechburg Volunteer Fire Department No. 150 water rescue and dive team, according to its captain, Joe Clark.