A man was pronounced dead at the hospital after the Coast Guard and fire department rescued and cared for him and a fellow boater overnight.
Here’s what happened, according to Assistant Fire Chief for Operations Mark Vendetto:
Two area men in their mid-40s were out in the harbor Saturday night in a 24-foot Cuddy Cabin boat when they apparently struck an object. Their boat capsized near the entrance to the West River channel in the City Point section of town.
The fire department got the call for help at 10:39 p.m. Firefighters arrived to find Coast Guard members on the scene. The Coast Guard had rescued the two men from the water and now transferred them on the shore at Long Wharf to the fire department. Firefighter paramedics worked with AMR paramedics on the two men, one of whom was unconscious.
The latter man was later pronounced dead at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The other boater was treated for a leg injury. Their names are not being released for now, Vendetto said Sunday morning. He said the cause of the crash is under investigation.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) arrived on scene around midnight and went back out in the water with firefighters. Their first job was to make sure no oil or gas had spilled into the water. None did.
Now DEEP will work with a private company to pull the Cuddy Cabin, which sank, out of the water.
