Everyday Heroes: Models Rescue Selfie-Taking Teens from Frozen Central Park Lake

(Instagram/EthanTurmbull)

Selfies are great. I am 100-percent in favor of taking selfies and posting them to one’s social media accounts as often as one wants. However, dangerous selfies are not great, and falling through the ice on a frozen lake is terrible. That’s why this week a couple New York skateboarders (and male models) are heroes after rescuing some teenagers who were taking some dangerous selfies and accidentally fell through the ice at Central Park.

According to NBC, Bennett Jonas and Ethan Turnbull were skateboarding in Central Park on Monday when they saw a bunch of young teenagers dancing around on the ice on a frozen pond in Central Park and taking selfies together. Then, as Jonas and Turnbull watched, the ice cracked underneath them and they all dropped into the icy water.

“I look over, I saw six heads just trying to get to the shore,” Jonas said to NBC reporters. “The back one was probably a good 20 yards from dry land.”

They both ran over to the pond as quickly as they could, and Jonas jumped into the water to help get the kids out. Turnbull waded in and stayed by the shore to drag the kids out as Jonas brought them to him.

The first three kids grabbed for Jonas when he first dove in–that’s normal, and one of the first things they teach you to deal with in lifeguard training. A drowning person will grab you and can easily pull you both under, but Jonas managed to fight them off and help them over to where Turnbull was waiting on shore. Jonas said the last two were floating unconscious and he couldn’t really see them, but he swam out into the freezing water and grabbed the clothes he saw and dragged them back to shore. He said the last one was foaming at the mouth and convulsing when he pulled him out of the water.

Rescue workers had made it to the shore by the time Jonas pulled the last kid out, and took them all to the hospital for treatment for minor injuries related to hypothermia, but they’re all expected to be OK. Police say the teens were mostly 15 and 16 years old, but they had a 10-year-old with them. Afterwards, divers searched the lake just to make sure nobody had  been left in there.

Jonas is from California and Turbull is from Australia, and they’re in New York working as models. They have the same management company and have worked for companies like Versace and Calvin Klein. If you are in the mood to look at 10,000 abs, Ethan Turnbull and Bennett Jonas both have Instagram accounts chock-full of selfies and professional photos.

Turnbull told the Post that he had a casting for Ralph Lauren the next day, and the casting director recognized him from the news coverage and was like, “Wait, was that you!?” It’s not clear if he got the job, but one does hope he got the job.

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