"I didn't even think when it happened, I saw somebody in trouble," Leary said.
Leary jumped into the murky, fast-moving water, at one point ending up hundreds of feet downstream. He was later pulled to safety by other first responders, suffering scratches and bruised ribs.
"I've never been in anything close to that powerful," he said. The people in the van perished.
The victims, 24-year-old Lottie Alston and her stepfather, 55-year-old Raymond Evans Jr., both of Louisburg, were remembered by Leary as "great people."
"She had her whole life ahead of her," he said. "Her stepfather was a former U.S. Marine ... and it was such a tragedy."
For his actions, Leary is being awarded the Carnegie Medal - the nation's highest civilian honor for heroism. Still, he said the recognition is humbling.
He said the two lives lost are always on his mind, and he wishes it had ended differently.
"If there was something more that could have been done, we would have done it," Leary said. "It was an unsurvivable situation ... I just got lucky."
Leary, who has served Spring Hope since 2019, now carries a rope bag with a flotation device -- just in case.
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"I hope that I never am in that situation again," he said. "But if there's a slight chance that maybe you can get your hands on them, maybe you can help, you try."
He will be formally recognized in Spring Hope.
Leary also hopes others take a lesson from the tragedy.
"Any time a tragedy like this happens, you see somebody else drive through the water, and you think you can do it, too," he said. "That's not always the case."