onshore, the officers are able to recover and boost three of the children onto the raft. >> we were kind of running out of room inside the raft. >> the two kids still in the water, joanna morales and her brother rafael, let go of the ice and start drifting away. >> you could see it in their faces. i started to lose one of them. >> la mancha quickly grabs the girl, joanna, leaving rafael for the moment. >> at that point i heard him say, i'm going to give up, and at that point, he kind of pushed off. and i reached in, and thank god i was close enough to reach him, and i grabbed him by his vest. i feel bad about it later. i'm happy i did it at the time. i yelled at him and told him to hold onto this raft, you're coming in next. and it worked. he got scared of me a little bit and held onto the raft. >> with two kids still in the water and nobody on steady ground, reinforcements arrive. firefighters, including lieutenant greg piccone, make it across the ice to help. >> i was really close enough to see their eyes, and they were in panic.