'Bit of a nosey' proves a lifesaver

GREYMOUTH STAR/SOLID ENERGY RESCUE HELICOPTER

QUICK THINKING: A rope and inner tube are used to help rescue a man at the mercy of a wild Grey River.

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A spur-of-the-moment  detour turned a tyre-shop worker into an accidental hero when he used a tyre tube to help save a man who had fallen into the Grey River on the West Coast.

Glen Redmond was on his way home for lunch yesterday when he decided to go to the river mouth in Greymouth for a "bit of a nosey" at the wild weather.

The casual stop turned serious when a woman ran up to him yelling for help.

She had been walking on rocks at Blaketown with her husband when he slipped and fell into the river and was engulfed by high seas.

The man, 43, was clinging to slippery rocks three metres down and being hammered by the waves, Mr Redmond said.

A rescue helicopter and a surf lifesaver were on their way, but he decided immediate action was necessary. The Tasman Tyre Treads employee inflated a truck tyre inner tube, attached a rope, and threw the device to the distressed man.

"It was tricky because the waves were crashing over his head. One minute you saw him, the next he was under a metre of water. His fists were white from clinging on," he said.

The man grabbed the inner tube and was dragged into the river, away from the waves. The inflatable Coastguard boat was then used to get the man out.

"If no one had been there he would have given up. He was pretty gouged up from the rocks, his feet were opened up," Mr Redmond said.

Senior Sergeant Tom Firman, of Greymouth, who pulled the man to safety from the notoriously rough river mouth, said: "He is a very - with a capital v - lucky man."

The badly shaken victim was taken to Grey Hospital.

- © Fairfax NZ News