A 19-year-old Westfield man and a 14-year-old Chicopee boy is missing.
At the scene behind Ames Road on the banks of the Chicopee River, where a 14-year-old boy is missing Monday night in the Chicopee River. Emergency personnel from Chicopee police and fire along with the Massachusetts State Police look over the banks of the river.Updates stories on water rescue operations in Chicopee and in Southwick:
Two teenagers in separate communities were presumed to have drowned after they jumped into water to cool off from the 90 degree heat and failed to surface Monday.
Emergency personnel in Southwick started searching for a 19-year-old Westfield man who disappeared in the Congamond Lakes around 4:30 p.m. Monday. Less than three hours later, Chicopee Police started searching for a 14-year-old who was believed to have drowned in the Chicopee River.
The Southwick police dive team assisted by the fire department searched for nearly five hours on the Connecticut side of the lakes. They called off the search just before 9 p.m. when it make it too difficult in the dark. At that point the man was presumed dead, said Southwick Police Lt. David A. Ricardi.
“The rescue operation ceased at dark, and at that point, it became a recovery,” he said.
The man, whose name was not released, was on a pontoon boat with a group of friends when he jumped off and disappeared in the water, Ricardi said.
“One of the individuals on the boat said they saw him go down, come back up, go down again, and he stayed down,” he said.
A diver comes out of Middle Pond of Congamond Lakes in Southwick as rescue personnel continue search and rescue operations for a 19-year-man who was last seen in the water after jumping from a boat on Monday.In Chicopee, the police department dive team, assisted by the fire department searched an area of the Chicopee River near the dam. Helicopters from the Massachusetts State police searched the river from above.
Chicopee police were notified at about 6:55 p.m. that a 14-year-old boy from Chicopee had gone into the water and not surfaced. He was last seen in an area behind the Chicopee Public on 449 Front St., Capt. Lonny Dankin said.
The search was still continuing at 11 p.m., according to state police. His name was not released.
The swift current created by the dam made it difficult for the dive team to navigate the water and find the boy, Dankin said.
One man at the scene, Orlando Rosario, 23, of Chicopee, said he, another man and the 14-year-old jumped into the river one after another.
When the teenager never resurfaced, those in the river initially searched for him before calling for help, he said.
“We were swimming and swimming and we couldn’t see him,” he said.
The boy disappeared at about 6:45 p.m., he said.
Elvin Diaz said he jumped in first and he said saw his friend slip or jump off the waterfall of the dam.
“He wasn’t coming up,” he said.
Standing on the banks of the river, from left, are Emilio Santana, 19, Kevin Sanchez, 20, and Orlando Roseo, 23, all of Springfield.Another man, Emilio Santana, 19, said he saw the boy slip into the water and then get caught under the waterfall in the river.
As the search continued, people who live in the area said it is not uncommon to see teenagers swimming in the river frequently especially on hot days. Many adults said they are constantly telling their children and other neighborhood children to stay out of the river.
“They are swimming here every day. I just said to my girlfriend something was going to happen,” said Laura Goodroe, who lives nearby.
She said she had called police in the past but had never seen them kick the kids out of the river.
Raymond Lablanc said he caught his son swimming there three weeks ago and yelled at him and told him to never come back.
Afterward he flagged down a police officer and told him about the kids swimming, but the officer did not chase the kids out of the area, Lablanc said.
Dankin said he has never heard a complaint about kids swimming in the river, but referred the issue to the Police Chief John R. Ferraro Jr., who was not available last night.
Yesterday’s drowning is the second on Congamond Lakes Middle Pond in less than a month. On June 19, 22-year-old Larry Cauley also disappeared in the water after jumping or falling from a pontoon boat at about 12:30 a.m. His body was discovered 36 hours later.
Manon L. Mirabelli contributed to this story