A boating accident near Greenport Harbor claimed the lives of a 28-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man, but the incident could have been an even greater tragedy if not for the efforts of a Mineola man.

In early morning hours on Friday, Aug. 22, 43-year-old Chris Heil was asleep at a house on Greenport Harbor when he was awakened at about 3:15 a.m. by a cat howling in the yard.

While trying to go back to sleep, Heil heard what he described as a woman "desperately yelling." Heil thought the woman was being attacked. He got out of bed and proceeded to his boat, which was located a little off shore. In the pitch black darkness, Heil took the search lamp out of the boat and flashed the light at the end of a large, granite rock jetty.

To Heil's horror, he discovered a boat that had smashed into the eastern side of the jetty. "Just as I got the light down on it, I saw it roll. Then, I heard nothing," he said.

Panic-stricken, concerned and nervous, Heil told his girlfriend to call the authorities. He then went back into the house to retrieve his keys, got into his boat and proceeded to the site of the accident.

"When I got there, I had what you would call a mess on my hands," Heil said.

The Mineola resident said he discovered a man with no life jacket who was sinking in the water and two people who were clutching their life jackets, but were in shock.

Upon arriving on the scene, Heil asked if everyone was accounted for and was told no.

Heil then pulled the driver of the wreck, 44-year-old James McCarthy, and the passengers, 28-year-old Rachel Adler and 32-year-old Fedele Leon, to safety about his board. "I was alone. I just don't know where the ability came and the strength came to get these people out of the water," Heil said.

The two people that were not accounted for were 28-year-old Heather Sourenian and 41-year-old Timothy Sixtus, who was thrown from the wreck.

Heil relayed information over the radio to the Coast Guard. "I've got the three people in the boat and my next job is to keep the wreck right nearby me because we have a 28-year-old girl inside the wreck," he said.

Sourenian was found dead and Sexus was reported missing. Four days later, Southold Police recovered a body believed to be Sexus.

With the three survivors aboard his boat, Heil sent up flares, which helped locate him. After the survivors were brought to safety, Heil went out to look for the other two passengers.

Since the incident, Heil still is bothered that not all five passengers reached safety even though there might not have been any survivors if it was not for Heil's actions.

"I'm so proud of him. I just cannot imagine having that presence of mind. He knew exactly what to do even though he was scared and nervous," said Chris Heil's mother Dr. Helen Heil.

The Mineola resident, however, does not feel like a hero. "A hero is somebody who goes into a burning house without any breathing apparatus and rescues a family without any regard for his own life. My life, I don't believe, was in any kind of danger whatsoever. A good Samaritan - I don't know about that word," he said.

Heil said he was simply doing what his father had always taught him to do - if you can do something to help someone else, you do it.

Heil's father is well known in Mineola. He is none other than the late Judge William Heil, who served as the acting village judge for the Village of Mineola from 1963 to 1996, when he died.

Judge Heil instilled in his son a willingness to help others in need, something he did himself. Once in 1956, while vacationing with his wife in Cape Cod, William Heil was walking on the beach when he noticed a woman in the water who was struggling. He swam out and brought the woman who had suffered a cramp back to shore.

"I took what my father said to my very seriously when I was growing up. My father took boating very seriously and just beat the rules into me that if anybody's in a jam, you have to go get them," Heil said.