Ansonia Fire Department
Matt Cassini and Matt Gregorio bring a man in Coe Pond to shore.
ANSONIA – Police said that a distraught man jumped into Coe Pond after officers discovered him living in a tent along its banks.
Around 3 p.m. on Friday (March 22), an Ansonia resident called police and told them a man had set up a camp near Coe Pond. When officers approached the man, he picked up one of his bags and walked into the water.
Officers called the fire department, who arrived and rescued the man. He was not injured, officials said.
Ansonia Fire Department Assistant Chief Anthony DeLucia, who was on the scene, said that the water was around 40 degrees when the man got in. That’s cold enough to kill, according to the National Weather Service.
Officers requested the hospital conduct a mental health evaluation for the man following the rescue. No charges were filed.
Inside The Rescue
Ansonia firefighters arrived on the scene at around 3:40 p.m. Derby and Seymour’s departments provided backup and rescue equipment.
After arriving, Ansonia firefighters Matt Cassini and Matt Gregorio donned cold wetsuits and waded into the water.
While Cassini manned the rope, Gregorio swam out to the man. Gregorio said the man was about fifty yards from shore.
“I’m no Michael Phelps, but I did the backstroke, if you will, and I swam out to him,” Gregorio said.
Gregorio said the man was staying afloat using the bag he’d brought into the water – and that he had wrapped his hand in fishing wire, tethering himself to the bag.
“He was definitely, I think, struggling at that point to just keep everything floating with his luggage and him,” said Gregorio.
Gregorio threw a life ring around the man and wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug. Then Cassini tugged on the rope and pulled them both back into shore, where EMS was waiting to bring the man to the hospital.
Gregorio estimated that the rescue took about a minute and a half. He said the man was cooperative during the rescue, and that he didn’t say a word as he was roped to shore.
Gregorio credited the fire department’s cold water training – they conducted a drill on Feb. 25 – for the smoothness of Friday’s rescue.
“We practice with our members for this,” Gregorio said. “We get a little goofy. We tell the guys that we’re rescuing: ‘Be animated, try to fight us, try to get away from us, try dunking us.’”
DeLucia said cold water rescues like this one are rare, but not out of the realm of possibility with both the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers nearby.
“This is probably the first one in my recent memory that we ever had to do a rescue on,” DeLucia said.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Ansonia firefighters thanked the Derby and Seymour departments for their support.
The Valley Indy did not request the victim’s name.
Click this link for resources on mental health counseling in the lower Valley.
