'Heroes' help rescue person from submerged car

Fire and rescue officials said two heroes helped rescue someone from a submerged BMW after they had driven it off the Isla Key Bridge and into the water.

St. Pete Fire and Rescue says they got calls around 10:30 a.m. that the car had gone off the side of the road, down the embankment and into the water.

Kevin Daly was just cruising out to go fishing, about to go under a small bridge on the Pinellas Bayway, when the car came crashing down in front of him.

"As I come to the 'No Wake' here, a car drove off the brink," he recalled Wednesday afternoon, "I zipped over here, and I just got out and was banging on the windows, and I could see him breathing, but he was unconscious."

St. Petersburg Police later identified the driver of the late-model BMW as 63-year-old Demetrios Provias of South Pasadena. 

Provias was westbound on the Bayway when his car left the highway, threaded through a large utility box and several trees, and launched off the seawall a few feet from the bridge. 

"The first thing I did was I got a rope and tied it off to the bridge so the car couldn't float out there," Daly said, pointing to deeper water away from shore. "He could drown and die out there."

Daly said Provias "...regained his consciousness, the water kind of woke him up I guess, and he said "What am I doing in the water, I was going after a loaf of bread?" 

St. Petersburg Fire Rescue said another man, Gus Hertz, witnessed the accident from the window of a nearby condominium and jumped into the water to help Daly. 

They got Provias onto dry land, and the driver was taken to Palms of Pasadena, where he was treated for unspecified injuries, and released.