A father and his children were pulled from the ocean in Salisbury, Massachusetts, on Wednesday afternoon.
The family was swimming at Salisbury Beach when heavy surf began to overwhelm them. Two bystanders quickly jumped in the water to help them.
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"I'm like, 'This can't be happening. This is not a joke. The father went in,'" recalled Jason Evan Iarossi, one of the Good Samaritans who came to the family's rescue. "The boy started calling to his father. It happened so quickly, you couldn't even..."
Iarossi said he saw the family in distress from about 30 yards up the beach. He and a 37-year-old man jumped in to save them.
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"We swam out to the kid. We were over our heads and it was too much. It was too much," he said.
Iarossi said the waves were about four to six feet high and the water has been rough ever since Hurricane Lee passed through.
"I don't think anyone belongs in the water," he said.
The father and the 37-year-old rescuer were taken to an area hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known.
"The father was calling to me," Iarossi said. "It was the father, me and the boy. He was calling me and I made a decision, or at least I think I did."
"I have to live with that. I have to live with that."
Police, firefighters and EMTs arrived at the scene soon after.
"The kids are obviously upset," Salisbury police Sgt. James Leavitt said. "The four of them have been leaning on each other. They've been great."
The family reportedly visits the Salisbury Beach area every summer. The children's mother arrived at the scene around 3 p.m.
