NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

September 17, 1999

CONTACT: Norman Young (850) 892-8001

PART-TIME FWC EMPLOYEE SAVES MAN'S LIFE

Fish and Wildlife officials say a part-time employee who lives as a caretaker at Hurricane Lake in the Blackwater River State Forest saved a Milton man's life last month after the man fell out of his boat and grew tired treading water.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) employs Dennis Keel and his wife Shirley as OPS (part-time) employees and on the morning of Aug. 18 as Keel and his wife enjoyed the morning sunrise and a cup of coffee at the north campground on Hurricane Lake they heard someone shouting a fisherman had fallen from his boat and needed help. Keel jumped into a boat used by his wife to conduct fisherman interviews and was soon pulling 69-year-old Elmer Thompson from the lake where he*d been in the water an estimated 30 minutes. "He was totally exhausted when I got to him," Keel said. "He didn*t have a life jacket on and he was in a little trouble." Keel helped Thompson back into his small jon boat and after regaining his composure, Thompson, wet clothes and all, resumed his morning fishing trip. "He came to fish and that*s exactly what he did. He didn*t even dry off," Keel said.

Downplaying his role, Keel said most people would have done the same thing. Keel says he's semi-retired from the construction business and three years ago he and his wife moved from Alaska to Florida. In addition to serving as the volunteer campground manager for the Florida Division of Forestry at Hurricane Lake, Keel was hired several months ago by the FWC to build courtesy boat docks at several northwest Florida lakes and do other odd jobs. His wife Shirley conducts angler surveys for the FWC's Division of Inland Fisheries.