A little after 12:30 p.m., dispatchers received a call from a man whose boat was taking on water near the entrance to Horse Creek.
The fire department took out its rescue boat and saw two men in their 60s and a boat that was about 25 percent underwater, Capt. Charles Kneece said. One man was hanging off the side of the boat, and the other was closer to shore in the mud.
The men told firefighters they could not swim.
Kneece said firefighters got both men onto the rescue boat and towed the sinking craft to shore. After the men calmed down, one of them said a plug had come undone, causing the boat to take on water.
They were treated by EMS on shore. Neither man was seriously injured.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources assisted in the rescue.
Being called to rescue someone on the Savannah River is not unusual, Kneece said. On Tuesday, firefighters rescued four people off a boat that had run into sand and broke its motor. Friday's incident was the fire department's sixth water rescue call this month.
"Each rescue is different," Kneece said.
Copyright 2012 - The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
