Rescuer drowns after saving 3 in Zamboanga flash flood

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The body of a mechanic was found floating at sea Monday, two days since he was swept away after rescuing a woman and her two children who were trapped on a rock by a flash flood that swept down the Anuling River from the mountains following heavy rain on Saturday, the authorities said.

“We feel very sad. All of us tried our best to scour the river hoping to see him alive so we could all say thank you for his saving my niece and my grandnephews,” Romeo Serna said upon learning that Raymundo Chin’s body had been found.

Serna’s niece, Gigi Salvador, and her two children, a boy and a girl, were bathing in the river when the flash flood struck.

Chin, 49, a heavy equipment mechanic employed by a local hardware dealer, was rapairing a backhoe owned by a relative of Serna’s near the river when the rampaging waters came down from the mountains, said Zamboanga police chief Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro.

“The woman tried to keep her children out of the water, but due to the strong current she could not traverse. They were stuck on a rock in the river,” Casimiro told reporters.

Chin rescued Salvador and her children.

“Unfortunately, after rescuing them, he was carried away by the water,” Casimiro said.

Theresa Carpio, a village councilor, told the Inquirer that Chin slid, fell and was carried away by the rampaging waters.

On Monday morning, Chin’s body was found at sea.

“We don’t blame anybody for our loss. My brother and whoever may have witnessed the agony of the woman and her children would have done the same thing,” Chin’s brother, Nestor, said in an interview.

“My brother lost his balance while trying to step on the slippery rocks. We lost him but he saved three persons,” Nestor added.