WATERVILLE — Bystanders and emergency personnel helped rescue a woman in the Kennebec River near Head of Falls in Waterville on Wednesday.

Several Waterville police cruisers and fire-rescue trucks responded to the park shortly after 3:15 p.m. for what police said was a mental health call.

Devin Hubbard of Waterville said he was at the Heads of Falls park with a friend when he heard the woman in the river, near the north end of the RiverWalk area.

“She was floating down, yelling ‘help!’” Hubbard said.

An unidentified woman is assisted Wednesday by a Waterville firefighter and bystander Devin Hubbard of Waterville after a water rescue from the Kennebec River near at Head of Falls in Waterville. A ladder truck was used in the rescue efforts. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Hubbard said he scaled the wall down to the river and jumped into the water to help her. The woman was about 15 feet off the shore, he estimated. Hubbard was unsure how deep the water was at that point in the river.

The woman was hanging on a rock, Hubbard said, and he said he pulled her on to a bigger rock where they could sit together.

“We don’t know how long she was in the water for,” Hubbard said.

After rescuers arrived, a boat, marked with a Cianbro sticker, with two Cianbro workers and two rescuers came from downstream to where Hubbard and the woman were located. Cianbro workers have been just downstream of the location working on the replacement of the Ticonic Bridge between Waterville and Winslow.

Cianbro workers from the nearby construction site, as well as emergency personnel, are seen traveling by boat Wednesday to rescue a person who was in the Kennebec River near the Head of Falls in Waterville. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Firefighters were also seen working with a ladder truck and ropes in the area where the woman was in the water.

Rescuers helped the woman into the boat and placed a flotation device on her before heading downstream, under the Two Cent Bridge toward the Ticonic Bridge. Emergency personnel were leaving the scene by 4 p.m.

Chief William L. Bonney of the Waterville Police Department said that since the incident is being treated as a mental health call, he could not release more details, including how the woman reportedly entered the river.

“The patient was removed from waist-deep water and subsequently taken to the hospital,” Waterville Fire Chief Shawn Esler said. “Our concerns included the current, which at times can be unpredictable. There was a gentleman that assisted prior to our arrival. We appreciate his efforts.”

People work to rescue a person Wednesday who was in the Kennebec River near the Head of Falls in Waterville. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

In May, Waterville police said a girl suffered “serious but non-life-threatening injuries” when she jumped into the river at nearly the same location as Wednesday’s incident. Police said an officer responded to a reported mental health crisis for a welfare check. The girl jumped over the railing she was sitting on, falling about 25 feet onto rocks.

Maj. Jason Longley of the Waterville Police Department said in an email Wednesday afternoon that the two incidents are “definitely unrelated” and police have not noticed any trends of such incidents at the riverside park.

Morning Sentinel photojournalists Rich Abrahamson and Anna Chadwick contributed to this report.