A 17-year-old boy is in critical condition after being barely rescued from the Volovăț River in Botoșani County, where he had gone to swim.
Although witnesses called 112 and firefighters arrived at the scene in 8 minutes, they did not intervene because they did not have a diving team.
The teenager's rescue was made possible thanks to a brave local resident who jumped into the river and was assisted by other people to pull him ashore, as reported by ProTV.
The firefighters arrived but did not enter the water
The firefighters' intervention was limited, even though the boy was in danger of drowning. The crew that arrived at the scene only acted from the shore, using hooks and a boat. Witnesses repeatedly asked them to jump into the water, but the firefighters refused, citing the lack of an authorized diving team.
The rescue came from a local man who entered the water after the teenager. People quickly mobilized to help him, and the boy was brought ashore. At that moment, resuscitation maneuvers began, and the teenager's heart restarted. Later, he was urgently transported to the hospital.
The boy in critical condition. ISU conducts an investigation
Since the young man had already been rescued from the water by locals, the diving team did not reach the scene. "The diving team of the inspectorate had to cover over 60 kilometers as the only authorized team to carry out search and rescue missions in the aquatic environment according to the legislation," explained Dorina Lupu, the spokesperson for ISU Botoșani.
The teenager was transferred to the "Sfânta Maria" Children's Hospital in Iași, where he is intubated and in critical condition.
The Botoșani Emergency Situations Inspectorate has opened an internal investigation to analyze the way the intervention unfolded.