FL Firefighter Makes Sinking SUV Save

Sept. 25 -- Jerome McIntee was headed down International Golf Parkway Monday afternoon to get his son at child care when he saw the commotion at the huge drainage pond at Interstate 95 near St. Augustine.

The off-duty Clay County fire lieutenant looked past a stopped dump truck and realized two sport-utility vehicles were afloat in the deep pond, a woman half in and half out of one of them.

McIntee turned around, then dove into the water to rescue Racquel Domingo, 44, as her Chevrolet TrailBlazer was barely floating more than 100 feet out in the water.

"I started swimming out to her, and she was about halfway out when I got her. As we were about 5 feet away, the car submerged," the 38-year-old said. "The man in the dump truck caught up and helped get her out of the water. ... It was automatic. I didn't stop as I went into the water and got her. If we had waited another 30 seconds, she would have been underwater."

Domingo, who could not be reached for comment, called the McIntee her "angel" after hugging and thanking him, his father said in a phone message to the Times-Union.

The crash occurred just before 4 p.m. Monday as two vehicles merged onto the I-95 southbound entrance ramp from International Golf Parkway, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Charles Handley III had been heading east in a Toyota Highlander on the parkway when he got onto the I-95 ramp, while Domingo had come off the westbound parkway.

Handley failed to yield and hit Domingo's TrailBlazer, then both slid off the ramp and down a hill into a drainage pond there, the Highway Patrol said.

Minutes later, McIntee said he drove up after moving items into his new home nearby. He said he saw the dump truck driver running from his stopped rig as well as the two vehicles "in the middle of the pond," so he reacted. Hired by Clay County three years ago, he made lieutenant last year and now works out of Clay County Fire Rescue Station 18 on Blanding Boulevard.

"I ran down the embankment and this guy yells, 'You have to get her out of that car,' saying she can't swim," McIntee said. "I handed the guy my hearing aid and I dove in."

Domingo's waist and legs were still in the sinking TrailBlazer when he got there. As he pulled her to shore, he saw Handley swimming nearby. He remembers asking Domingo if anyone else was in her TrailBlazer and being told there wasn't.

"I was just in the right place at the right time and I was glad to be there," he said. "She gave me a hug and said thank you very much."

McIntee said he called his wife to make sure she knew what happened, reassuring her that it wasn't his vehicle in the water.

Her response?

"She's like, umm, OK," he said. "Her first reaction was that she's seen gators and snakes in that water, and I was just laughing."

McIntee left but went back to help show troopers where the two SUVs had gone underwater.

The Highway Patrol said Handley was cited with failure to yield.

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