By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT — A twelve-year-old girl was rescued from the Sugar River around 7:45 Tuesday evening, in a stretch of swift water between the Charles Puksta Bridge and the high-level dam by the Common Man Inn.
“It’s unclear how she got to where she was,” said Fire Chief Bryan Burr. Found about midway between the shorelines, the girl was wearing street clothes and apparently had not intended to go swimming. It was unclear where she had entered the water or if she had travelled any distance with the current.
“If she was a little further down it would have been a more technically difficult rescue,” said Burr. The high-level dam is farther downstream.
First responders donned swift-water rescue flotation vests with tag lines, and one fire company member went in the water. They were able to retrieve her in an area where the water was shallow, making a safer outcome for both the child and rescuers. Once on shore the child was carried up a steep embankment to the waiting ambulance. No injuries were reported.
The fire department was assisted by the Claremont Police Department and Golden Cross Ambulance.
The Claremont Fire Department would like to remind those enjoying the summer season that water with current is dangerous even when it appears to be slow moving. Do not enter water with current unless you have proper training, proper personal floatation device and experience doing so. A person can easily become hypothermic when exposed to water having current.
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