An off-duty firefighter found himself in the right place at the right time last night in Fort Collins.
Michael Dairon, a Poudre Fire Authority firefighter, performed CPR on a 5-year-old boy who was pulled from a community pool.
The boy was found face-down about four feet from the edge of the pool when his father pulled him out. The boy had no heartbeat, and Dairon immediately started trying to revive the boy.
“At that point my firefighting and EMT skills just took over,” said Dairon, who has been a firefighter for six years, all with PFA.
Dairon was at the pool with his wife and three kids when his wife noticed the boy floating in the pool.
“My kids play around in the pool all the time, so I wasn’t really sure what was going on at first,” Dairon said.
The boy’s father jumped in and pulled the boy out and Dairon started performing CPR. After one or two minutes of CPR, the boy woke up and started breathing on his own. The child was then transported by ambulance to Poudre Valley Hospital.
Dairon, whose father is a retired firefighter and mother was a nurse, said it is the first time he has dealt with rescuing a child from the water, on duty or off.
“This was definitely a first for me, especially with the pediatric aspect,” Dairon said. “It was one of the scariest times I’ve had. Thank god my training helped me stay calm and my wife stayed calm and called 911.”
Mitchell Byars: mbyars@denverpost.com
