A female was rushed to a hospital Monday after rescue workers pulled her from a frigid stream in an hour-long rescue near the University of Southern Maine campus.
Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said the female, who was unidentified, fell through the ice on Tommy’s Brook while hiking with friends about 3 p.m. The incident occurred about a quarter of a mile into the woods behind Dickey Wood Hall, a university dormitory nicknamed “The Towers.”
Lefebvre said her lower extremities were wet. She was able to pull herself up onto a log in the freezing brook water. Members of Gorham’s cold-water rescue team wearing wetsuits went into the stream to rescue the woman.
He said the woman was placed in a stretcher, which he called a Stokes basket, that is typically utilized in search and rescue operations. Rescue workers had to rig up a pulley system to hoist her up a steep ravine before being transported. The rescue took about 60 minutes.
The air temperature was about 20 degrees and the area is heavily wooded. Lefebvre said the woman suffered from hypothermia but didn’t appear to have other injuries. She was rushed to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
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