Good samaritans make a happy ending for a potential boating disaster

FLATHEAD LAKE – Dispatchers received two Flathead Lake water emergency calls around 7 p.m. Aug. 2.

One call, generated from Big Arm State Park regarded three people and a child stranded in the water.

All four people were wearing life jackets and had a buoy, but were reported to be getting tired, as they were in the water for about 10 minutes.

Lake County Search and Rescue crew were dispatched to the area but before they arrived, a good Samaritan in a boat picked the four people up.

Thankful that they were safe, the rescued folks immediately notified their rescuers that their two Labrador retrievers were in peril.

But five minutes before dispatchers learned about the four folks, they learned another good Samaritan boater found two labs in the middle of Flathead Lake, pulled them out and took them home to his house. The dog rescuer told emergency staff, the two dogs were trying “very hard to get back to the lake.”