Matt Thurston helped rescue a couple whose vehicle got swept into the Androscoggin River off Route 232 in Rumford on Dec. 19. “The current naturally swept them toward the bank,” he said. “If it wasn’t for that, they would have been goners.” Rose Lincoln/The Bethel Citizen
RUMFORD — Jade Gianforte was feeding chickens at her farm on Route 232 around 5:30 p.m. Dec. 19 when she heard hollering coming from the nearby Androscoggin River.
Two local motorists traveling north on the road got swept into the river’s floodwaters a day after a powerful wind and rainstorm. One was clinging to a tree in the cow pasture; the other was closer to the riverbank, Gianforte’s partner, Matt Thurston, said.
The couple, who operate Jade’s Homegrown farm, along with Thurston’s cousin Alan Theriault and two neighbors used a rope, a life jacket, a tree branch and lights to rescue the pair.
Thurston said Gianforte raced through the pasture on foot while he and Theriault got ropes and jumped in the Kubota utility vehicle with its bright lights. He said Gianforte wanted to jump in because she is a strong swimmer, but he told her, “No, you’re not jumping in.”
When their neighbor came out wearing a life jacket, he jumped in with a rope but because it was too short, they formed a chain and pulled her to shore.
“Alan had my fingertips and we yanked her out,” Thurston said.
The other victim was downriver a ways.
“Grab the stick, grab the stick,” Gianforte told the person referring to a 6-foot branch she stretched out to him, and she pulled him to shore.
“He was cold and he was in rough shape,” Thurston said.
Both victims were taken to a house and a neighbor, a doctor, got them into a hot shower to start warming them.
“The current naturally swept them toward the bank,” Thurston said. “If it wasn’t for that, they would have been goners … it’s powerful.”
While the couple were looking out the window waiting for Bethel Rescue, they could see another vehicle in the water. They headed out with Thurston’s father’s large tractor and with lights, they could see a man was sitting on the roof of his submerged truck.
With the current too rough and the water too deep to attempt to rescue him, Bethel firefighters responding to get the first two victims got the man using their boat, Thurston said.
Thurston said about 10 years ago his brother almost died when his snowmobile fell through the ice on the river. He was in the water for an hour and a half and had to be airlifted out and recovered, he said.
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