LAKE OGALLALA - A bus driver at Alliance Public Schools is being hailed as a hero this week after saving a Denver, Colo. man from drowning in Lake Ogallala.

Ross Herstedt, 63, grew up in Paxton, but hadn't been to the lake north of Ogallala for several years. He decided to setup camp near the Kingsley Dam spillway and go walleye fishing over the weekend. 

"Just got our camps up and all of the sudden this guy came running up over an embankment screaming, 'Help, help, help! Somebody help us!'" Herstedt said. "I knew right away somebody's in the water and they were in trouble."

Herstedt rushed to the shoreline, east of the barricade buoys, to find two men chest deep in the water and another man who had been swept away by the current from the Kingsley Dam Hydro-plant plume. They were swimming in the area because of the cooler water.

Lake officials remind campers it's very dangerous to enter the water near the plume at Lake Ogallala, because the water is very cold and there's a very strong downstream current near the spillway.

The brothers said they didn't know how to swim and weren't wearing lifejackets. Herstedt always considered himself a strong swimmer and jumped in to begin the swim towards the man stuck in the current.

"This guy showed up with an air mattress and threw it out," Herstedt said. "I swam to the side and grabbed that, and went on out to get to this kid. I was really concerned the current was going to carry him away. It wasn't hard getting out there, because the current from the spillway was carrying me, but he was moving away from me and I didn't know if I could catch up with him. He was going down, his face kept disappearing."

Had it not been for the unnamed man who threw the air mattress in, Herstedt says both him and the guy trapped in the current may have drowned. 

Herstedt was able to help the man onto the floating mattress, and after they flipped once, were able to swim to shore safely. No CPR was given and after a few minutes the man was able to tell Herstedt, "thank you." 

"He was almost gone. His family, they just thanked me profusely. Everybody there did, because he would've drowned. No doubt."

Game and Parks officials thanked Herstedt, who says he didn't catch any fish this weekend, but he saved a life and that's all that matters.