VIDEO/PHOTOS: Good Samaritans came to the rescue when a small boat overturned in the Connecticut River in Rocky Hill on Tuesday afternoon, sending a man and his dog into the river. The Rocky Hill Fire Department said firefighters, Rocky Hill Police Department and EMS were called to the river at Ferry Park around 2:19 p.m. and they saw a small boat that was overturned around 200 feet off the docks and the boater holding onto the stern of a nearby vessel. They also learned that a dog was trapped beneath the overturned boat.
Before the first responders even had a chance to leave the shore, people who were in the water started to help. Ed England and his friend were on a boat nearby when it happened. “I said, ‘We gotta get him in, his boat is sinking, this old guy,'” England said. “All of a sudden that was it. He hit the throttle, threw him out of the seat, he went backwards.”
“He was bobbing down, like he was going down but he didn’t have a life jacket on either. It was just scary,” England said. People who were on a jetski pulled the man to safety. England said they threw the man a line and pulled him to England’s friend’s boat, where he clung to the ladder and was given a life jacket. Another good Samaritan dove into the water to save the man’s dog. “He dove under that other boat, the boat was submerged, and pulled that dog out. That dog was under there for at least 15, 20 minutes breathing that little bit of air from that boat upside down. It was amazing that he was under there still treading water,” England said. “We all cried when the dog came out. I’m crying now! It was very scary. Very scary. We all worked together as a team.” EMS evaluated the man who was in the water and released him, according to the fire department.
The fire department brought the boat to the dock located at Ferry Park and secured it. “The currents are pretty bad in the Connecticut River, so we were lucky there were a couple good people around to help out,” Bill Kelley, the deputy fire marshal for Rocky Hill, said. State Environmental Conservation Police responded to the scene as well, according to the Rocky Hill Fire Department.
