Two men were rescued from river Monday

It was Han Hongbo's last evening in Fredericton, so his friend Bin Le decided a delightful way to spend the late afternoon would be to take out his canoe and do some boating on the St. John River.

ENLARGE PHOTO


Stephen MacGillivray Photo
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Bin Le, right, and his friend Han Hongbo, who was visiting from China, are escorted from the river by a member of the Fredericton Police Force after they were rescued by the Fredericton Fire Department's marine unit late Monday afternoon after the canoe they were in overturned in the St. John River.
But by 5:30 p.m., both men were dripping wet standing at the edge of Morell Park off Waterloo Row thanking police officers, fire rescuers and paramedics for assisting with their rescue.

Hongbo, who's visiting from Tiantin, China, east of Beijing, leaned on two paddles as paramedics filled out an incident report and then handed it to him - his souvenir of Fredericton.

"Tomorrow he's leaving for China and we wanted to enjoy such a beautiful day. Unfortunately, we have a Da Vinci story," said Le, a researcher at the University of New Brunswick.

Le said everything was fine until they were hit by a wave as they paddled along the St. John River.

"It was a big wave and we flipped over. We were in the middle of the river. We tried to get close to the bank. We almost did it, but the policemen had a very quick response," he said late Monday.

There were no other boats nearby, but people on shore near the popular ball diamond and soccer field saw them and called authorities.

The Fredericton Fire Department launched its rescue boat. Ambulance New Brunswick rolled in and so did two police officers. Both men were swiftly returned to dry land.

"Both of us had our life-jackets on. That really helped," Le said.

In fact, he said, it's reinforced in his viewpoint that no one should be out in a boat without their inflatable life vests on.

"That's important. Anyone who likes boating (should wear) life-jackets," he said.

Other than getting soaked and being a little cool, neither of the two was injured.

Hongbo, who was unable to do an interview in English, was cheerful and laughed.