POULSBO — Firefighters responded to a water rescue of two girls approximately 300 yards off shore who had been in the water for approximately an hour Saturday.

Poulsbo Fire Department, Bainbridge Island Police and the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Edgewater and Lofall area, south of the Hood Canal Bridge, just after 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. When the first unit arrived at the Edgewater Community Park, firefighters witnessed a man swimming out to the girls. Firefighters borrowed a neighbor’s boat and met the man and the two girls, assisting the girls into the boat. They then transported them to the Lofall dock where paramedics were waiting.

Paramedics treated and monitored the 12-year-old girls while they awaited their parent’s arrival. Their body temperature had dropped significantly but it had not yet become life-threatening. After about 45 minutes in a heated medic unit, they were released to their parents.

The caretaker for the park, who is a diver, said he received a call from a neighbor that he heard girls yelling. The caretaker said he had seen the girls swimming earlier, playing with a log.

“The beach is fairly flat and when the tide’s in, you can walk out several hundred feet,” he said. “I knew immediately that they had probably gotten preoccupied and before they knew it, the tide came in more and the current swept them out about 300 yards.”

The caretaker said he grabbed his dry suit and two floatation devices and swam to the girls. The girls were not wearing life jackets and officials remind swimmers that in nearly all drowning incidents, victims are not wearing life jackets. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children and in Washington State, there are more than 100 drownings a year. If in need of a personal floatation device (PFD), contact your local fire department because many fire departments have low-cost PFDs, or life jacket “loaners.”