Growing up on the shores of the Gunpowder River in Baltimore County?s Middle River, a headstrong Vincent Dominick got himself into a few scrapes on some not-frozen-enough ice patches.
“If you?re not out of there quick, you?re done,” he said.
So when the hum of a chopper overhead and wailing sirens in the distance beckoned Dominick and twofriends outside Oct. 23 ? and they saw a capsized boat about 200 yards from shore, just off Oliver Point ? Dominick clicked into motion.
The trio hopped into a powerboat and arrived to find one woman perched on the back of the sinking boat, asking about her sister. When the sister was found nearby, she had already been in the water for more than an hour, her limbs too frozen to pull herself into a basket lowered from a rescue chopper.
“She wasn?t moving,” Dominick recalled.
After the men pulled both women into the powerboat and hauled them to the closest pier ? the one next door to Dominick?s childhood home ? paramedics rushed both victims to area hospitals.
“They were in the right place at the right time,” said Elise Armacost, a spokeswoman for the county?s fire department. “When people are faced with life-threatening situations, you see ordinary people who are willing to take whatever steps to help.”
Wednesday, County Executive Jim Smith declared Dec. 20 Vincent Dominick Day and presented the county highway maintenance worker with a county hero pin.
“These things happen because people care, people get involved and people try to help their neighbor when they need it,” Smith said.
Dominick, 31, said the victims, who survived but have yet to be identified and were not present at the ceremony, sent the men a gift certificate to a local crab house and a letter thanking them for their bravery.
But Dominick said he doesn?t consider himself a hero.
“I?m just a normal person,” he said. “I know what it?s like to be in that situation.”
