ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) – The family of a one-year-old St .Helena Island girl is celebrating the child’s life and thanking firefighters for rescuing her. Treasure Jefferson was found floating in her grandparents’ pool on July 7; her grandfather, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Deputy Isaac Fripp, says Treasure was unresponsive, with no pulse. However, firefighters with the Lady’s Island/St. Helena Fire District were able to continue the CPR Fripp had already started and use an AED to save the child’s life.

“My wife said, ‘We can’t find Treasure,’” Isaac Fripp says.

Treasure’s brother found her in the above-ground pool out back. Fripp says the other grandchildren had been in and out of the pool that morning, and somehow Treasure had managed to slip out of the house and climb the ladder that was left in the pool.

“I run over there …and he, he pulled her out of the pool,” Fripp says, “and I, and I grabbed her and laid her on the ground and immediately began CPR.”

“She was still. She was still. Eyes were closed, and so was her mouth,” he says.

Fripp was emotional, as he personally thanked the firefighters and EMT’s for their quick action on the scene on Monday morning.

“All along, all the time I was giving her CPR, I was just asking Jesus to help us, ’cause she was not moving,” he said.

Fripp tells NEWS 3 he remained on his knees, even after the firefighters and EMT’s left the house and took Treasure to the hospital.

When firefighter Sam Kearns arrived, Treasure still had no pulse.

“When you arrive on scene, and it’s a 1-year-old baby, all kind of things go through your mind. It’s like, we can’t let this happen on our watch. We have to do everything we possibly can. When we leave here, we can’t leave nothing undone,” Kearns says.

By the time Kearns left, there was a pulse; Treasure coughed and began crying after Kearns’ team performed more CPR.

“It made us feel like everything that we’ve done in the last 15 years is worth this one time, because you’re not going to save everybody,” Kearns says, “but if you get a chance to save a beautiful 1-year-old girl…it’s amazing.”

Kearns says Treasure’s life would not have been saved, had it not been for the immediate CPR from her grandfather.