WEST DES MOINES, IA (KCCI) — Two kids in Iowa are alive and well, thanks to the quick thinking of two teenagers.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, the kids were playing on a frozen pond behind an apartment building when they fell through the ice.
Sisters Jasmine and Jacora Morris were scrolling through TikTok when they happened to look out their third-story window at the right time.
"I immediately screamed, 'they're drowning, they're drowning!'" said Jacora. "And then me and my sister, we ran downstairs. The dog chased us, we were falling down the stairs to get back here."
They jumped into the icy water without hesitation.
"I'm numb. So those kids, they've been in there longer than me. They've got to be numb," said Jasmine. "At some point, they were going to just stop moving and I didn't want them to just stop moving. So I was just like, 'Come on. Just get them out. You can get out later. Just get them out...Get the kids as long as they make it, they're like seven or eight. It's like just get them. You can live long enough. Just get them.'"
One boy was trapped underneath the ice with only a finger above the surface.
"And I grabbed his middle finger and that is how he pulled him up and we got him up there. He was kind of heavy too, honey. But we got him though," said Jacora.
17-year-old Jacora and 15-year-old Jasmine turned into heroes in seconds.
"You can see the relief and the happiness that he was out the water and both of them were safe," said Jasmine.
The rescue happened so fast that the medics didn't get there until it was over.
"I was amazed. Not many children would drop what they're doing or adults, and just run out and wade in the water up to their shoulders to pull two other kids out," said Doug Harms, the West Des Moines EMS Division Chief.
The girls' mom, Jacqueline Morris, now says all those years of swimming lessons paid off!
"I'm very proud. I really don't have the words to say because every time like wow those were my girls," said Jacqueline.
The city of West Des Moines plans to recognize the sisters with a lifesaving award at a later date.
