Firefighters have rescued a woman from the Genesee River in upstate New York.
The Rochester Fire Department responded to a 911 call around 8am on Wednesday, with the caller reporting spotting a woman in the river near the downtown Andrews Street bridge.
Crews rushed to the scene and found the woman clinging to a log amid mud and floating debris by the bridge.
‘This was a technical rescue so the process for getting the victim out the water was about 40 minutes,’ the department said in a statement.
First, two firefighters lowered a ladder down a 20-foot wall on the river’s east bank and used it to enter the water.
Two other rescuers approached in an inflatable raft that they put in the water upstream of the bridge.
The Rochester Fire Department responded to a 911 call around 8am on Wednesday, with the caller reporting spotting a woman in the river near the downtown Andrews Street bridge.
The rescue took about 40 minutes as firefighters worked around dangerous floating debris to pull the woman to safety
Rescue crews used both a ladder lowered down a 20-foot wall and an inflatable raft put in the river upstream
Andrews Street was briefly closed during the rescue, and the fire department contacted the energy control center at Rochester, Gas and Electric to ensure that they did not change the current of the water from an upstream dam at Court Street
Courtesy of WHAM
The rescue was challenging because of the debris in the water as well as a strong undertow current in the river, a spokesman for the fire department said.
Andrews Street was briefly closed during the rescue, and the fire department contacted the energy control center at Rochester, Gas and Electric to ensure that they did not change the current of the water from an upstream dam at Court Street.
‘We didn’t want her to fall back into the water,’ said Everett Daniels, one of the firefighters who entered the river, in an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle.
‘We stabilized her with ropes and then worked to move her closer to the wall,’ said Daniels. The woman was pulled from the water and up the wall in a harness.
A rescue team is seen pulling the woman from the water. It was not immediately clear how she ended up in the river
Firefighters stabilized the woman with ropes and then worked to move her closer to the wall on the river’s east bank
Firefighters said that the woman was suffering hypothermia from the effects of the frigid waters of the Genesee River
The woman was pulled from the water and up the wall in a harness by members of the Rochester Fire Department
The woman was transported Strong Memorial Hospital for treatment. The extent of her injuries wasn’t immediately clear
Daniels said that the woman was suffering from the effects of the frigid waters of the Genesee River. ‘That cold turns to pain, and the hypothermia kicks in,’ he said.
‘She was shivering cold. She couldn’t feel anything and she was screaming that her hands were purple. We just told her ‘be patient, we’ve got you’,’ he said.
The woman, who appeared to be about 50 years old, had difficulty answering questions when she was first pulled from the water.
It wasn’t immediately clear how she ended up in the river.
The woman was transported Strong Memorial Hospital for treatment. The extent of her injuries wasn’t immediately clear.