After working all day in the Florida sun cleaning swimming pools, he almost didn’t go.

Andrew Smith, a 2018 graduate of Kane Area High School, is an avid shark fisherman and drone hobbyist now living in Pensacola, Fla.

He had just clocked out of work May 15 when his friend convinced him to hit Pensacola Beach, toward Fort Pickens on Florida’s panhandle, to chum the waters for some “big boys.”

Smith, born and raised in Kane from 2000 to 2021, lives with a seizure disorder so he is medically prohibited from swimming — or kayaking.

“Most people, when they shark fish, they kayak baits out,” Smith told a Florida news station. “It’s not safe for me to kayak at all.”

Instead, Smith uses a SwellPro Fisherman Max to “cast” his bait. The “giant drone,” Smith said, “can carry 10 pounds in 40 mph wind and fly 30 mph.” He said he has made hundreds of flights with his drone since moving to Florida for the fishing, warmer weather, dining options and lifestyle. The drone allows him to deploy his bait far beyond traditional casting limits.

“I have had to use the drone for the last year,” he said. “I had a mess-up with the drone about a month ago. I just got it back on (May 12). I wasn’t even gonna go out — my friend convinced me to go.”

Not long after they arrived at the water’s edge, panic broke out.

“A girl came running and screaming asking if anybody could swim,” Smith recalled. “Her friend was getting sucked more and more out (to sea).

“I said, ‘No, I absolutely cannot swim.’ I looked down at the drone — (and thought) the drone can swim, I can’t.”

Thinking fast, instead of sharkbait, Smith tied a flotation device to his SwellPro and launched it toward the teenage girl, who was struggling in a rip current about 100 yards offshore.

The first time Smith “flew it out, it was a terrible miss,” he said. “I released it too early, it was really windy — it wasn’t close at all. I was shaking pretty bad. It was nerve-wracking, I about cried.”

Bystander Robert Nay, also acting quickly, delivered a second flotation device to Smith, who secured it to his drone for another try.

“After the first one, I could kind of tell how windy it was, so then I lowered it down — I had to kind of go slower and slower down to her because that was it — that was the last opportunity we were going to have.”

Smith said he carefully lowered the rescue float until he could “see hands grab it,” then lowered it still more and released it.

“She climbed on and started floating,” Smith recalled. “If it weren’t for that second drop … the EMS said she wouldn’t have made it.”

The girl had been struggling for five minutes before Smith successfully delivered the swim buoy, and it was another five minutes before first responders arrived. Crews evaluated the girl and released her to go home without injury.

That bystander told Florida news outlets that he’d never seen anything like it, and that “it was apparent the girl was losing steam.” Nay, who also thought to video the rescue, called Smith “a true hero.” The 17-year-old girl’s father later called Smith a guardian angel, while crying and thanking him for saving his daughter’s life.

Life guards were not due to begin patrolling the beaches until after Memorial Day, and had the girl been swimming farther toward Fort Pickens — a no-fly zone for drones — Smith would have been unable to assist.

“It was pretty crazy,” Smith said.

WEAR Channel 3 News in Northwest Florida reported that another witness called it “a true act of humanity.”