VIDEO: With warmer days coming, the Westport Fire Department joined the National Weather Service to get the word out during Cold Water Safety Awareness Week.
It came a few weeks after 27 teenage rowers and two coaches with the Saugatuck Rowing Club had to be pulled from the frigid Long Island Sound. Their skulls capsized during bad weather on March 20, sending two people to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia. Police are still investigating what happened.
The cold water incident was the most recent for Westport fire, but department leaders said they're repeatedly called into action every spring.
“It seems like every year or so we have a bunch of rescues in the water, and I think a contributing factor is that people don't understand what cold water is and how quickly you can be in danger here in New England and the Long Island Sound,” Assistant Chief Brian Meadows told News 12.