What a tragic ending and here so close to Christmas, this young boy gave his life to try and help save a friend.....well, he has been recovered:
Dive team recovers body of 7-year-old boy
A firefighter searches the banks of a canal near University Drive and 95th Street in Mesa for a missing boy who reportedly fell in the canal. Dec. 10, 2009.
Ralph Freso, Tribune
Darkness falls as firefighters from Apache Junction continue to search for a missing boy who reportedly fell in the canal. Dec. 10, 2009.
Ralph Freso, Tribune
Concerned residents watch as fire personnel search for the missing boy. Dec. 10, 2009.
Ralph Freso, Tribune
Technical rescue crews from the Mesa and Tempe fire departments and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office prepare to search a section of the Central Arizona Canal on Friday Dec. 11, 2009, near University Drive and 95th Street in Mesa for a missing boy who reportedly fell in the canal the evening before. The search ended Friday morning with the discovery of his body.
Tim Hacker, TribuneA massive search and rescue mission for a missing 7-year-old boy believed to have been swept away in an east Mesa canal ended Friday morning with the recovery of his body.
A dive team found the body in the Central Arizona Canal waters, about 18 hours after the boy, Aldo Rubio, first went missing.
Rubio had jumped in the canal to help his 11-year-old friend who had fallen in, but the younger boy was swept away by the strong currents, authorities said.
Rubio was a first-grader at Zaharis Elementary School.
Kathy Bareiss, spokeswoman for the Mesa Unified School District, said authorities informed Rubio’s class Friday.
“The children are sad, but what we find is that children want to reach out and help,” Bareiss said.
She said his children were busy making cards for their classmate’s family Friday.
“This morning we have this horrible scene,” Bareiss said. “Yesterday he was on the playground, he was in the cafeteria, he was in reading circle.”
Bareiss said the school is providing counseling for the students and keeping a close eye on them to make sure they get through their grief.
His friends reported him falling into the canal slightly east of Loop 202 and west of Ellsworth Road about 4:50 p.m.
A group of four boys, ages 6 to 11, were playing along the canal in that area after squeezing through a hole in a fence moments before the 11-year-old boy initially slid into the canal and his 7-year-old friend went into the water to try to help him out, according to Detective Steve Berry, a Mesa police spokesman.
The 11-year-old made it out of the water, but the 7-year-old struggled in the strong currents, Berry said. The 11-year-old boy and the other two boys were unable to pull the 7-year-old out and ultimately lost sight of him as he apparently was swept away.
As the 11-year-old boy was running home, he told an adult male that the boy had fallen in, and the man called 911, Berry said.
With daylight quickly waning, a massive rescue mission quickly focused along a half-mile stretch of the canal east of Ellsworth Road where it crossed University Drive as groups of residents from the nearby neighborhoods looked on.
The search included helicopters, Mesa fire and police departments, the Apache Junction Fire Department, Central Arizona Project Canal Police and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Tempe Fire Department diving teams.
The eastward currents in the canal were traveling about 5 miles per hour, or 800 cubic feet per second, where waters were as deep as 17 to 20 feet, according to Berry.
“That doesn’t seem that fast, but with that amount of water in the canal, it’s pretty strong,” Berry said of the water’s currents.
The rescue effort was called off late Thursday and became a recovery Friday.
