MILFORD — On Sunday, Milford firefighters pulled five people from the rising waters of Long Island Sound near a local sandbar, a fire official said.
Brandon Edo, a Milford Fire Department spokesperson, said two people were walking on the sandbar Sunday morning when the incoming tide overcame them.
“Screams heard from shore initiated 911 calls,” he said.
Edo said two fire department boats and another watercraft responded to the sandbar area, and a fire engine on shore spotted people in the water on the west side of the sandbar.
A fire boat found five people in distress in the water, Edo said, and firefighters pulled them all on board. He said three bystanders in the Silver Sands area jumped in the water to help the two people from the sandbar, but they too got caught in the current.
Edo said all of the people were transferred to the other boat for medical evaluation, then brought to Milford Yacht Club to meet Milford Fire Department medic units.
He said two people were transported to a nearby hospital for further care and evaluation due to signs of hypothermia.
It was the second incident in two days involving people caught by the rising Long Island Sound tide. On Saturday, the morning tide stranded a fisherman and a bystander on Penfield Reef in Fairfield and swept them into Long Island Sound; rescuers saved both, while another fisherman remained missing, Fairfield police said.
The search for Kwahiwi Edwards, 34, of Queens, N.Y., later transitioned from a rescue to a recovery operation, police said.