WAYNE, ME (July 8, 2009) – Kennebec Journal photojournalist Andy Molloy is being credited with helping to rescue a swimmer who was swept over a river dam and fell some 15 feet to the rocks below.
Molloy was shooting feature photographs of two men swimming near the North Wayne Dam, in an area where people typically swim safely. But a fire department official said that recent rains had increased the river's currents from slow to swift.
The photographer says he tried to warn the men about the current, but that 25-year-old Shawn Lawson was swept over the dam as Molloy photographed him clinging to one of the dam's control wheels.
Firefighters said the photographer dragged Lawson to shore and kept his head above water with the help of two men who were working nearby. Lawson escaped with minor injuries, firefighters said, and he was treated and released from the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
