PORTLAND — When Portland’s emergency dispatchers broadcast on Oct. 16 that a woman was poised to jump off the Casco Bay Bridge, police from South Portland and Portland were the first to reach her – even though neither department has a boat.

The initial call came in at 2:55 p.m., reporting a woman on the bridge who was speaking on the telephone with Youth Alternatives Ingraham’s emergency counselors. A minute later, she was in the water. Officers who were headed to the bridge after the first call diverted to the shore beneath the bridge.

That gave them a couple minutes’ head start on the Portland Fire Department and the Coast Guard, both of which have rescue boats in Portland Harbor.

Portland police officer Kevin Haley went to the waterfront at the base of the bridge, but a new security fence blocked access to the harbor there, he said. So he sprinted down Deak’s Wharf and encountered fishermen Rick Garland and Christopher Dobson, who said their friend’s skiff was available.

“I assumed the Portland fireboat and the Coast Guard were going to go, but time is of the essence. I was kind of thinking outside the box a little bit,” Haley said.

The three were speeding across the harbor to the South Portland side, where the woman was in the water, when the Coast Guard and Portland’s fireboat were dispatched at 2:59 p.m.

South Portland police Sgt. Joseph Dell’Aquila found his way to the water through a park near the base of the bridge, and waded into waist-deep water from the rocky hillside. He was first to reach the woman, who said she was unable to move her arms. He feared her back was broken.

“She was hurting,” he said. “She definitely would have drowned if no one was there to help her.”

The rescuers motored the skiff around a jetty to a nearby beach, where they met an ambulance crew from South Portland and Portland firefighters.

The woman was taken to Maine Medical Center, where she is recovering.

 

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at: dhench@pressherald.com

 

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