Somewhere out in the dark, beyond the trees that loomed around his inflatable boat, Chris Calhoun could hear the cries of a missing firefighter who'd ventured into these same flooded woods.

Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Chris Calhoun, right, with one of his former students, Wade Vagias, now a graduate student at Slippery Rock University. Click photo for larger image.

The firefighter was one of three from Emlenton, Venango County, who'd been trying to rescue people surrounded by the rising waters of Connoquenessing Creek in Butler County, only to be trapped themselves when their boat capsized.

Calhoun develops and teaches water rescue courses for the state Fish and Boat Commission and at Butler County Community College, where he is a professor and coordinator of its Park and Recreation Management Program. By early Saturday morning, he'd helped to rescue seven other people from homes surrounded by high water.

But he and three others -- his friend and fellow water-rescue instructor Wade Vagias, of Lancaster Township, Butler County, and two Unionville firefighters -- agreed to search for the lost men outside Evans City. Launching into the woods near Needle Point Road, they assessed the strong current, ducked under electrical wires and paddled over unseen hazards that could ensnare them.

"I knew what we were into," said Calhoun, 43, of Center. " I told Wade, 'If something goes wrong, we're it. Nobody else is coming out here.' So we were very focused."

Guided by faint cries, they located Emlenton Fire Chief David Whitehill, clinging to a utility pole, then found firefighters/divers Bob Sloan and Chad Grieff hanging onto their overturned boat. The men had been in chilly, chest-deep water for two hours since their boat flipped over after its light bar snagged on a telephone wire.

The rescuers maneuvered as close as possible, then tossed bags of rope to pull the men to safety.

Over 12 hours, Calhoun and Vagias worked with firefighters and emergency medical services crews to rescue 22 trapped people and various pets in Harmony, Zelienople and other communities in Butler County. Calhoun had volunteered his help to county officials, then rushed with his wife, Kelly, to gather equipment from the college after turning on the television Friday night and realizing "this is going to be bad."

"That evening was 20 years of my training wrapped up in one night. I don't consider what we did to be extraordinary at all," he said. "I look at what we did as being one small cog of that evening. We were part of a team that made a difference."