Off-duty firefighter Steve O'Malley was spending his Saturday afternoon sprucing up his boat when he heard the terrified screams of a young mother after a gust of wind blew her stroller-bound toddler face-down into Lake Michigan at a South Side harbor.

The 33-year veteran Chicago firefighter said the timing was perfect as he was able to help save the child.

O'Malley said he had been behind the couple and their boy in the stroller and had held a door open for them before they all began walking onto the pier at the 31st Street Harbor.

As he was fixing up his boat for his wife's upcoming birthday celebration, he noticed the wind picked up strongly about 2 p.m.

"I was talking on my phone, and I'd stopped to tie my shoes. And then all of a sudden I heard: 'Oh my God, my baby, my baby,''' O'Malley said. "I looked and the stroller was upside down in the water."

The child's father jumped in the water and O'Malley followed, almost without thinking.

O'Malley, 52 and of the Southwest Side, said he remembers seeing another story recently about a stroller that had been blown into the water on a windy day.

"I saw the stroller was sideways in the water, and I didn't see the baby. I thought, 'Oh no … you're not going down — not on my watch,''' O'Malley said.

The boy, about 18 months old, was still strapped in the stroller, wearing a yellow T-shirt.

O'Malley saw him lying sideways, face-down in the stroller with his bottles, clothes and toys floating next to him.

With one hand holding the toddler above the surface, he used the other to swim and do what his years on the force had trained him to.

"My strength just kicked in,'' O'Malley said. "I grabbed the T-shirt and held the baby and the stroller above the water and I started swimming to the pier."

The child's father helped maneuver the two to the pier, and with the help of several bystanders, they were pulled to shore safely.

"We just grabbed him," O'Malley said. "Luckily, the ladder on the pier wasn't that far away."

The child did not even need an ambulance, O'Malley said. "He coughed all this water up and then started crying.''

Afterward, they were in a celebratory mood. The boy and his parents invited O'Malley to spend the rest of the afternoon with them and cook out at their boat docked nearby, but he didn't go with them.

"They're really nice people,' said O'Malley, who has two daughters.

Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim knows O'Malley and wasn't surprised when she heard what he did Saturday.

"It's classic Steve. He was swimming with the baby and the stroller over his head," Ahlheim said. "He's an amazing person."

O'Malley said he was recently promoted to lieutenant. "My graduation is next Friday at Navy Pier."

But for all the years he has been a firefighter, O'Malley said his timing Saturday was perfect.

When he saw the baby struggling, one thing was going through his mind: "I thought: 'Yeah, I'm getting him. No matter what, I'm getting him.'''

rsobol@tribune.com

Twitter @RosemarySobol1