A 16-year-old girl from Maine is being hailed as a hero after she swam 600 yards to get help for her father and sister when their 12-foot aluminum boat capsized. They were fishing in Parlin Pond in Somerset County over Memorial Day weekend when their boat started to take on water.

Kiana French did her best to bail the water out of the boat, but thanks to high winds, the boat quickly filled with water before it flipped over, sending all three into the frigid pond. Kiana put on her life jacket and then helped her younger sister, Cierrah put her life jacket on.

"My sister was freaking out, and she's like: 'I'm sorry. This is my fault because I wanted to catch another fish.'" Kiana told the Waterville Morning Sentinel. "It really wasn't her fault. I made sure she was OK, and I tried to convince Dad to put his life jacket on. He was in shock. He wasn't even trying. He just hung onto the boat."

Kiana knew she had to get help and left her sister and father behind so she could swim to shore to get help.

"I knew if I waited any longer, the currents would get worse than they already were," she told the newspaper. "I wasn't going to waste any more energy than I needed to, so I started swimming."

Instead of trying to swim against the current and head directly towards the shore, she went with the current and had to swim about 600 yards before she reached dry land.

"In between the waves, I went through them, not against the current," Kiana said. "I went kind of right to left, so I didn't have to fight the current. They say I swam a long ways, but I wasn't really thinking about it. I was sad to leave my sister and my dad behind, but I felt like it was the right thing to do."

Once Kiana reached the shore, she began screaming for help and eventually caught the attention of another boat in the water. Kiana jumped in, and they pulled her father from the freezing water. Another boat managed to track down her sister, and all three were checked out by EMTs at the scene. While they were extremely cold, tired, and sore, they were otherwise unhurt.

"I cried. I was really happy to see both of them. My boat picked up my dad. He was the coldest out of both of them. He was in shock. He was really blue when he got in my boat, and Cierrah was shivering," Kiana said.

Photo: Getty Images

Tracy Bethea

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