Pekin Fireman Rescues 2 Men



  A  Pekin firefighter saved the lives of two fishermen Friday afternoon after their bass boat capsized in the Illinois River. 
   Ed Burrell, who works out of the South Side Station, was off-duty Friday when he decided to look for
driftwood to burn in the fireplace.        
   Burrell said he went out at about 1 p.m.  The temperature was about 35 degrees but it was etremely
windy causing waves as high as 2 1/2 feet.  
   Burrell had taken his dogs along.  The river makes a good place to train the dogs, Burrell eplained,
as he collects the wood.  He said that way he kills two birds with one stone.
    Burrell said it was about 3:30 p.m., he was about a quarter mile south of the Chicago & North Western Railroad bridge, south of Pekin, when a 14-foot bass boat went by, hugging the shoreline because of the whitecaps. 
  The two occupants of the boat waved, Burrell said, and went on around the point-- out of his sight.  About 15 minutes later, Burrell said, it occurred to him that once in a while he could hear a voice.  He said the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and the calls for help were drifting the other direction. 
   Burrell was on shore picking up the wood, so he pushed his craft out into the water to investigate the voices he finally detected to be calls for help.  
  As he rounded the point, only about 200-yards up the river, Burrell related, he saw what he first thought was a floating log, but he then spotted the fishermen in the water waving their arms looking for help. 
  The two men had hit a sunken log that flipped their craft completely over. 
   Burrell said they were clinging to the ribs on the bottom of the boat.  
    He said the men were chilled to the bone and the heavy clothing they were wearing was water-logged. 
  Because of the water-soaked clothing and waves it was impossible for them to swim to safety Burrell said. 
  Burrell rescued the two men, whose life jackets had been strapped to the seats on the boat. 
   The bass boat was pulled ashore Burrell said, when Stan Mayeur of pekin came by in another boat and gave assistance. 
   Burrell noted that by this time he had his craft full of driftwood so Mayeur took the men back to shore. 
   The two fishermen, Marvin (Bud) Loy and Bill Underwood, also oth of Pekin, were cold and wet anfter a very harrowing experience but they were otherwise alright.

SOURCE: Pekin Times- Jan 18, 1983.  Submitted by Desiree Burrell Rodcay