S. Alexander Smith died attempting to save Christian G. Smith from drowning, Dorena, Oregon, July 1, 2014. Christian, 13, slipped and fell into the Row River while trying to wade across it at a point above 15-foot-high Wildwood Falls, and the swift current carried him toward the brink of the falls. Alerted, his brother, Alexander, 16, high school student, who was on the bank, immediately ran about 35 feet to the river and entered it at a point just above the falls. He grasped Christian’s wrist when Christian came within reach, but the current pulled them both downstream. Separated, they were carried over the falls. Christian surfaced in a pool below the falls and made his way to safety, but Alexander became lodged in the falls by a log submerged there. His body was recovered five hours later, when the log was removed. He had drowned.
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