Cyr saved two of Hoglund's children from drowning in Maine's swift-running Saco River last spring. Brittany, then 20 months, was revived uninjured; Mark, then 3, suffered brain damage, but returned home after five months in a hospital.
"Sometimes it's hard to believe the children are doing so well now," says Hoglund. "I call what happened the miracle on Hoglund's street."
For his bravery, Cyr has been awarded a prestigious Carnegie Medal which is given to civilians who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. Carnegie Medals and individual $2,500 grants were award ed to 94 persons nationwide in 1994.
Cyr, who is majoring in civil engineering, says every penny of his cash award will be used to help defray his college expenses.
Surprised to learn just before Christmas that he had won the medal, Cyr is a reluctant hero who still doesn't think of himself as special. But accounts of that fateful day say otherwise.
At 8:20 a.m. on Saturday, May 28, Cyr was about to get out of bed when he heard a commotion outside his window.
"At first I thought the neighbors had noticed something unusual in the water," reports Cyr, whose parents' house is located on the Saco River. Then he saw a young woman pointing to the river and yelling frantically, "My babies are in there."
Without knowing how many children had gone down, or whether they were trapped inside a vehicle, Cyr immediately dashed outside, plunged into the river and began searching the dark waters. "I was operating totally on instinct," he says. "I really didn't realize what I was getting into."
The murky water limited his vision to less than three feet. Suddenly, to his surprise, he found a van with a torn-off door and began feeling around inside it. He grabbed a leg and brought Mark to the surface. By the time he dove in again seconds later, the fast-moving current (swollen by recent rains) had moved the van into deeper water several feet away. He shook Brittany out of her car seat and took her to the top. "The worst thing was that both kids had stopped breathing and felt lifeless in my ar ms," he says.
As harrowing as the accident was, it probably couldn't have happened in a better place. Hoglund had put two of her children into the van and gone to her apartment after the third, when, police theorize, Mark somehow got the vehicle moving. It rolled acr oss the 30-foot lawn, lost one of its doors after smashing against a picnic table, dropped down a 10-foot embankment and sank like a stone.
"Having grown up on the river," Cyr says, "I knew the area where the van went under real well. It helped me find the kids fast."
According to an account in the Biddeford Journal Tribune, the events leading up to the near tragedy were routine for a Saturday morning. Suzi Wooster, the landlady of the apartment house where the children live, was drinking coffee in a first-floo r living room with tenants Paul Martin and Kathy Millette. All at once they heard a crash. Martin rushed outside.
"By the time I got to the edge of the river, the van was dive-bombing into the water," Martin said shortly after the incident. Since neither he or Millette swim, he ran back into the apartment and dialed 911. Wooster, meanwhile, had waded into the river but was unable to see clearly because she wasn't wearing her contact lenses. "The water was so cold I thought my heart would stop," she reported.
Seconds after jumping out of bed, Cyr reached the scene and saved the children. Martin and Millette began CPR. Brittany responded immediately. Mark's response was slow. "We couldn't wait for 911 to start CPR," Martin said later, "even though they reac hed us in just a few minutes."
The children were hospitalized after being rescued. Brittany was treated and released later that day. "I saw her playing in the yard that same afternoon," Cyr says. "It was the best feeling in the world to see her smiling." Mark, who was taken to the M aine Medical Center in Portland, remained critical until the first week in July when his condition was upgraded to serious.
"I was very concerned about Mark," Cyr reports. "But he came home the first week in November and is doing well with his physical therapy. The doctors are much more encouraged about his future now."
Cyr credits his father, Adrien, who taught him to swim at a young age, with helping to hone the skills that made it possible for him to rescue the children.
"I used to toss him in the river when he was about 4," Adrien says. "He thought it was fun. I knew he had the ability to save those children. He's pretty good under pressure."
A member of Phi Gamma Delta, Cyr was working as a short-order cook at Cascade Water & Amusement Park when the incident occurred. He later took a summer job as a geotechnical engineer in Cumberland.
Cyr's acquaintances can't say enough good things about him. Sgt. Raynald Demers of the Saco police says, "If Cyr hadn't dove in and gotten those kids right away, there's no question they would have died in the van."
Biddeford Fire Capt. Donald Poirer, whose son is Cyr's friend, says he's a genuine hero. "He jumped out of bed and into the cold water. He feared nothing. It's absolutely amazing he got to both of those children in time!"