They didn’t even get the girls’ names.

On Oct. 17, shortly after sunset, siblings Cameron and Lucy Granger rescued three teenagers caught in a riptide at Huntington State Beach.

“I heard screams and saw them drowning,” said Cameron, 14, who had been body surfing moments before.

“I put my fins back on and went in. It was pretty much instinct.”

Lucy, 12, followed close behind.

“One of the girls grabbed my shoulder and I helped her through the waves,” said the seventh grader. “I told her, ‘You’ll be OK. I’m a Junior Lifeguard.’ It just seemed like the right thing to say so she wouldn’t feel so panicked.”

The professional lifeguards had gone off-duty for the night. By the time rescue trucks – sirens wailing – arrived in response to a 911 call about missing swimmers, the girls already were back at their bonfire party.

Lifeguards checked on the girls but did not take their names.

“There was no reason to document the incident because it was a citizen rescue that didn’t require medical attention,” said Chris Egan, coordinator of the Huntington Beach and Bolsa Chica Junior Lifeguard programs.

Egan was not one of the lifeguards involved that night but knows of Cameron and Lucy, who have participated in Junior Lifeguard for the past two summers.

A week later, word got out about the young heroes when the California State Lifeguards publicly praised them on Facebook. The notice quickly garnered thousands of “likes” and hundreds of shares – bringing kudos for the Grangers from teachers, classmates and friends.

“I didn’t really think much of it,” said Cameron, an eighth grader at Sowers Middle School. “Anyone at my school would have done the same thing. We’re all in Junior Lifeguard.”

Their dad, Robert Granger, admits that he was not much help during the crisis. After scrambling onto a sandbar to stand guard – wearing shorts, shirt, shoes and prescription glasses – he promptly fell into the churning waves himself.

“Luckily, I was able to get to shore without my kids having to rescue me, too,” Granger laughed.

His wife, Becky, missed the entire ordeal. “I was sitting on the beach looking at my phone,” she said.

After Cameron and Lucy deposited the rescued girls on dry land, the girls cried and shivered and offered profuse thanks.

The Grangers packed up and headed to their nearby house like it was just another day at the beach.

“It took a while to sink in,” Cameron said. “We were all sort of in shock.”

Egan learned about his students’ feat from a lifeguard on the scene. “He said, ‘A couple of your kids made a really good rescue,’” Egan recalled.

“It makes me so proud that they were able to recognize a situation and act on it. This is everything we teach in Junior Lifeguard coming to fruition.”

Cameron credits the aquatic safety program.

“If it weren’t for Junior Lifeguard, I’d be the one out there drowning.”

Contact the writer: sgoulding@ocregister.com