A Calgarian is recounting the desperate moments he tried to save two young men who drowned at Mahogany Lake in the city’s southeast.
The bodies of two 20-year-old men were recovered after bystanders noticed someone struggling in the water at the man-made lake on Wednesday evening.
Danny, a father of three, was there when he heard a call for help.
“There were three kids in the water, and I got them to point out where they went down,” he says. “I jumped in and did what I could.”
Trained as a commercial diver, Danny says his “dad-instincts” kicked in and he was confident he could find the two men in the seven-metre deep lake.
But after over a dozen attempts searching in the murky water, he and three others came up short.
“In commercial diving, we always practice bringing somebody up with us with fins on, and that’s hard,” he says. “A human being, dead weight…you know, you just try and do what you can.”
As the desperate search unfolded, frantic calls flooded into the main lake house at Masters Park.
By 5 p.m., the Calgary Fire Department (CFD) was on scene. When crews discovered belongings left behind, they knew a second swimmer was missing.
Hours later, an underwater search team recovered the bodies of both young men on a beach with no lifeguards.
“There are parents out there all the time, but sometimes there are so many kids out there that you just lose track, I guess,” Danny says.
Mahogany Lake has reopened to members on Thursday with operations back to normal.
Calgary police and CFD continue to investigate the reason behind the drownings.