Brothers Save Two From Icy Lake on Their Day Off

When Darlene Boettin and her son Nathan Fennig stepped onto Lake Killarney to fish in January, they never expected the ice would break beneath them. Within moments, the freezing water pulled them under, and what started as a peaceful afternoon turned into a fight for survival.

Ben and Cody Delatorre, two firefighter brothers who happened to be off duty at their nearby home, heard the commotion and didn't hesitate. They grabbed the first thing they could find—an extension cord—and sprinted to the lake without any rescue gear.

A third neighbor joined them, bringing a ladder into the water to help pull Darlene and Nathan to safety. The makeshift rescue worked. Both mother and son made it out of the icy lake alive.

"I was terrified, terrified," Darlene said at a recognition ceremony in Cary, Illinois, in late February. "It's really hard to think about how this could've been way worse."

Nathan echoed his mother's relief. "I'm feeling better right now and I just want to thank everyone for caring about us and keeping watch," he said.

The village of Cary honored all three firefighters as lifesavers at the Tuesday night ceremony. The recognition brought warm hugs between the rescuers and the people whose lives they saved, celebrating what could have ended in disaster.

Sunny's Take

Sometimes heroism doesn't require fancy equipment or a uniform. It just takes neighbors who care enough to run toward danger instead of away from it. Ben and Cody proved that being off duty doesn't mean being off call when someone needs help.

Their quick action reminds us that the best emergency response often starts with people who simply refuse to stand by and do nothing. An extension cord became a lifeline because two brothers knew every second counted.

The reunion between the rescuers and the rescued shows the beautiful flip side of those terrifying moments—everyone gets to go home, and a community grows stronger knowing they look out for each other.