Ansonia Fire Department
Firefighters haul a woman up from the banks of Coe Pond on Monday (April 8).
ANSONIA – Ansonia firefighters rescued a distressed woman on the banks of Coe Pond on Monday (April 8), just two weeks after a man was pulled out from the same pond.
At around 1 p.m., Ansonia police were called to Hemlock Drive to respond to a call about a 38-year-old Ansonia woman. A caller told police that the woman had walked down a hill by Coe Pond and was possibly suicidal.
Upon arriving, officers walked down the 200-foot hill and talked to the woman, who was standing near the water. Officers tried to convince her to come back up, according to Ansonia Police Lieutenant Patrick Lynch, but she refused.
The woman “wanted to try to go in the water,” Lynch said. Coe Pond is dangerously cold this time of year – Ansonia Fire Department Assistant Chief Anthony DeLucia said that it “can’t be that much warmer” than 40 degrees. The National Weather Service warns that that water temperature can kill.
The police called the fire department to the scene after the woman refused to return to high ground. Firefighters arrived and set up rope rescue equipment. Using this equipment, they were able to haul the woman back up to safety. The rescue took around 45 minutes, according to a Facebook post.
Afterward, the woman was taken by paramedics to the hospital. Officers requested a mental health evaluation for her.
The incident was unconnected to the rescue on March 22, according to Lynch and DeLucia. In that rescue, a distressed man jumped into the water after officers approached him at a camp he had set up along Coe Pond’s banks. That rescue ended similarly, with the man being brought to a hospital and a mental health evaluation being performed.
Locally, people can use BHcare as a launching pad to find help regarding mental health issues.
