"I looked over and I can't see my son and I noticed that he's sinking into the bottom of the pool," Zack tells Inside Edition. "So I just dove right in, grabbed after him. If I wasn't within an arm's reach, it might have been too late for me."
A toddler is standing on the deck of his backyard pool.
He wants to go for a swim, so he takes off his lifejacket and walks to the edge of the pool.
He sits down, and then slides right into the water.
In a split-second, his father races to the pool and manages to pull his son out of the water.
A security camera captured it all, and now Inside Edition is speaking with the quick-thinking firefighter dad of that little boy, Zack Petite.
Cole loves the water and he wanted to join his sister Audrey in the pool that day at the family's home near Palm Springs, California.
"I looked over and I can't see my son and I noticed that he's sinking into the bottom of the pool," Zack tells Inside Edition. "So I just dove right in, grabbed after him. If I wasn't within an arm's reach, it might have been too late for me to go in and go after him and grab him."
Mom Jessica says she was not outside when little Cole went in the pool.
"All I heard from inside was the screaming and then the crying," she says. "It was a very emotional moment."
In the end, dad managed to save the day. But he has a message for parents.
"Keep an eye on your kids this summer when they're out playing near any source of water," says Zack.
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