as dennis tries to hold onto both claudia and suelina. but the powerful current sweeps his wife into the culvert. a local resident captures the terrifying ordeal on camera. claudia is already pulled out of the tunnel, but dennis is still inside trying to reach his wife. >> and then, like from heaven, the ladder came down right in front of me. and i reached out and i thought, well, i better get out of here and let the firefighters do their job. so i pulled, grabbed on to the ladder and i pulled myself through the opening. >> the deputy fire chief chris russo is waiting on the ladder and helps lift dennis up to the rescue team on the bridge. >> when i finally got a hold of dennis he was wedged between his kayak, the ladder and the edge of the culvert. thank god he wasn't a giant guy and i could actually lift him up and get him on the ladder and move him to safety. >> i got him. under the arms. under his arms. >> i was pretty exhausted. i knew that there wasn't much more that i could do, but i was also, at that point, had been prepared to if