“The baby is in the water,” a woman screamed Tuesday at Smalls Falls. Before the drama was over, a host of good people and a lot of preparation had saved a youngster’s life.

The 3-year-old from Connecticut slipped into a pool of water above a series of waterfalls along Route 4 between Madrid and Rangeley. As his father searched desperately for him beneath the surface, the boy was swept over one falls and then another.

His father followed, eventually emerging from the water with the unconscious boy in his arms.

Complete strangers were quick to respond. They flagged down cars and tried cell phones. Finding no signal, they drove to a nearby house to call rescuers.

Two camp counselors, Tyler Warmack, 22, and Shavoyae Brown, 19, went into the water to help the father. They performed seven cycles of CPR before the boy started to breathe on his own.

A passing ambulance was flagged. By this time, rescuers from Rangeley Fire Department, NorthStar Emergency Medical Service and North Franklin Search and Rescue Team had arrived to stabilize the boy, place him on a rescue stretcher and remove him from the rocks.

The boy was then airlifed to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he was first listed in critical condition, but improved as the week wore on.

It was a great effort by everyone involved. But it also shows the strength and value of our rescue systems.

The two camp counselors had been trained to use CPR and put their training to good use. They will forever know that their clear thinking and training saved another person’s life.

Search and rescue teams spend countless hours training to respond to such emergencies. Again, they were ready, willing and prepared to save a life.

Helicopter rescue services are costly and difficult to sustain, requiring experienced pilots and medical personnel.

And, of course, hospital emergency rooms must be staffed and ready every hour of every day with highly trained specialists and expensive equipment.

It took a long chain with many links – stretching from a remote dot on a map to a high-tech hospital – to save this boy’s life.

When there was a scream for help, it was ready.