A father is being honored as a hero for sacrificing his life to save his three children from the Millstone River earlier this week.

The Camarillo family says they were at their family-owned flower shop in New Brunswick when they got the call about the death of 42-year-old Rolando Camarillo-Cholula, a beloved father, uncle and husband.

“Right now, my mom, she’s in great grief. She’s still trying to process this, but he was a great man. He worked hard,” says Kelvin Camarillo, Roland’s son.

Kelvin Camarillo says he will always remember the moments before his dad left on Wednesday and never returned.

“He told us that he loved us,” Camarillo says.

Camarillo-Cholula's actions showed this when he put his children’s lives ahead of his own and pulled them to safety when they began to struggle in the river before he was swept away.

“It’s hopefully what any parent would do, jump in the water to save the children, but it’s no doubt that Rolando was willing to do that. He loved his children immensely,” says friend Peter St. Vincent. “It breaks my heart to think about what those children witnessed.”

The family is warning other people to use caution while swimming and to not let children swim in the river.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the Camarillo-Cholula family.