Did I do the right thing? What would of you done?

[Rossco]

I reckon you did the right thing. It's human nature to help those in need (well for most anyway) and I'm a firm believer of what comes around goes around, were all going to need a hand a some point in time.

I am sorry Yendor, I can't agree with you. Whatever the cause is attempting unsafe recovery is not acceptable at all means.
You cannot risk anyone's life for material recovery.
I would have ask them to contact professional recovery services and it would have learnt them a lesson as well without risk.

Sorry again

When you say in an unsafe manner I'm sure that it was undertaken as safe as possible given the circumstances which you were presented with which sounded less than ideal for a number of reasons. The fact you mentioned it means that thought was put into the situation and steps taken to alleviate risk as much as possible by the sounds of it to me, without getting too much into the nitty gritty of it all.