Two men have died and two others were in critical but stable condition after being rescued from the cold waters of Long Island Sound, where their boat capsized Sunday morning, local fire officials said.
Rescuers in Stamford, Connecticut, responded to a report of a small boat in distress in the waters off of Shippan Point at about 10:20 am. Sondag, the Stamford Fire Department said in a news release. The 12-foot boat was struggling to return to shore because of strong northeasterly winds and rough seas, SFD said.
One of the men in the boat was able to call a relative from his cell phone before the boat was carried away by the tide and wind, according to SFD. First responders were delayed in finding the exact location of the boat due to conflicting reports of the boat’s last known location, die vrylating gesê.
Fire dispatchers were ultimately able to use cellular tracking software to determine the last known location of one of the people who made a call from the boat, die vrylating gesê.
When rescue teams arrived at the location of the last cell phone ping they found debris in the water, which they believed to be from the boat. Amid 3 to 4-foot swells, rescuers found the four men and brought them back to shore, SFD said.
All four were transported to local hospitals, where one was pronounced dead after “lengthy life saving efforts,” die vrylating gesê. Another died later in the day and the other two remain in critical condition, SFD announced in a social media post Sunday afternoon.
Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Conservation Police are investigating the incident, according to SFD.
