Jose Estrada, 12, looks up to firefighters, but Wednesday firefighters and police lined up to shake his hand after he saved a child from near-certain drowning.

"He's a hero to everyone," Fire Capt. Mike Mollica said of Jose after the Susan B. Anthony Elementary School sixth-grader rescued a child from a canal's swift and chilly waters.

"Without him, the youngster who fell in may have drowned."

Firefighters plan to nominate Jose for a lifesaving award.

The 10-year-old victim, not identified, was shaken but doing fine at home,
Mollica said.

Jose's transformation from typical schoolboy to hero happened by fate. "He was in the right place at the right time and knew what to do," Mollica said.

Jose was strolling home from school when he saw two boys walking along the canal bank in the 1000 block of San Pablo Avenue, south of Olive
Avenue, near the Tower District. One of the boys slipped and fell into the canal. He yelled for help.

"I knew I had to do something," Jose said. "I didn't want him to die."

A mail carrier also saw the boy slip in and called police shortly before 3 p.m., said police officer Kurt Smith. The 911 call scrambled firefigthers,
police officers, American Ambulance divers and two helicopters to the canal. But before emergency crews arrived, Jose sprang into action.

The boy fell into the water on the east side of San Pablo Avenue, Smith said. As the boy disappeared into the dark, 50-foot cavern under the street, Jose raced downstream, climbed down the canal's iron rungs, and inched toward the water. He planned to catch the boy on the way by and sent his 11-year-old cousin, Adrian Beltran, farther downstream as backup.

Jose stood on one rung and held another rung with one hand. He then stretched his other hand toward the water.

"I was scared because it didn't look like he could swim," Jose said.

Fortunately, the swift current forced the boy to drift toward the edge and Jose reached out and grabbed him. He held on, and together they climbed back to the canal's edge.

"He was shaking and I was shaking," Jose said. "I was really scared."

The boy ran home without uttering a word.

Afterward, Jose thought about his deed.

"They teach us the canals are dangerous," he said. "Maybe he won't do this again."

Because the boy ran home, it took emergency crews some time before they figured out Jose had made the rescue. Once they learned, they called off the search and proudly told reporters of Jose's heroic act.

Mollica said the boy would have survived less than 15 minutes in the canal because the water is chilly and swift, and canals are typically filled with shopping carts, tires, tree limbs and other debris.

"He could have gotten snagged in the debris and drowned," the fire captain said.

Jose wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. Until then, he will be happy just being a hero.

As reporters took turns interviewing Jose, Smith took a moment to shake the boy's hand and hug him.

"He definitely went above and beyond," Smith said.

A proud Jose smiled.

The reporter can be reached at plopez@fresnobee.com or 441-6434.