Life Star called in for Great Falls river rescue

Life Star called in for Great Falls river rescue
Cars parked on the sides of roads near the Housatonic River — as was the case last weekend in Kent at Bull’s Bridge— make it hard for emergency vehicles to travel along the roads.
Photo by Lans Christensen

SALISBURY — Two women were rescued after falling from the Great Falls on the Housatonic River on Wednesday, July 22.

Jacqui Rice of the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service said in a phone interview on Friday, July 24, that three women from the Naugatuck area were on the top of the falls Wednesday morning. The falls are between Salisbury and Falls Village.

One of them slipped and a second tried to assist, but they both went down.

One wound up on the rocky shore, and the other clung to a floating log.

The third member of the group made her way down the trail to try and get help. The 911 call came in to Litchfield County dispatch a little before noon. 

Rice, Lakeville Hose Company Assistant Chief Jason Wilson and Andrea Downs from the Falls Village Volunteer Ambulance Squad (and a professional paramedic) made their way to the injured women using ropes.

The two women, strapped into back boards, were evacuated using a boat. The more seriously injured woman — who had back, hip and leg injuries — was taken by ambulance to Housatonic Valley Regional High School, where a Life Star helicopter was waiting.

The second woman, whose injuries were less serious, was taken to Sharon Hospital, treated and released.

Rice said the women were lucky in that they missed a significant rock outcropping. 

“It could have been tragic,” she said.

Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand said on Friday that the First Light power company has to do a better job at deterring people from going to the falls.

The July 22 incident was the second time this month that emergency services were required at the falls. On Sunday, July 5, a small boy had to be rescued after he was carried away by the current.

Fire and rescue personnel from North Canaan, Millerton, Cornwall, Sharon, Norfolk and Riverton also responded on July 22.

On Monday, July 27, Falls Village First Selectman Henry Todd said he’s worried about cars parked along the access roads to the river.

“Fifteen or 20 cars we can deal with,” he said. “Fifty or 60 or 100 we can’t.”

Todd said his primary concern was on the Salisbury side — on Housatonic River Road in particular. 

“If we can’t get emergency vehicles up there then somebody is going to drown.”

Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand said Monday morning that he would continue to press the First Light power company for a management plan for the falls.

He also suggested, as a way to relieve parking pressure, that the picnic and boat launch area on Dugway Road, which is now closed, be reopened for parking and launching boats, but not for picnicking. This would probably require that the picnic tables be removed.

Related Articles Around the Web

Latest News

To mow or not to mow?

To mow or not to mow?

A partially mowed meadow in early spring provides habitat for wildlife while helping to keep invasive plants in check.

Dee Salomon

Love it or hate it, there is no denying the several blankets of snow this winter were beautiful, especially as they visually muffled some of the damage they caused in the first place.There appears to be tree damage — some minor and some major — in many places, and now that we can move around, the pre-spring cleanup begins. Here, a heavy snow buildup on our sun porch roof crashed onto the shrubs below, snapping off branches and cleaving a boxwood in half, flattening it.

The other area that has been flattened by the snow is the meadow, now heading into its fourth year of post-lawn alterations. A short recap on its genesis: I simply stopped mowing a half-acre of lawn, planted some flowering plants, spread little bluestem seeds and, far less simply, obsessively pluck out invasive plants such as sheep sorrel and stilt grass. And while it’s not exactly enchanting, it is flourishing, so much so that I cannot bring myself to mow.

Keep ReadingShow less

Where the mat meets the market

Where the mat meets the market

Kathy Reisfeld

Elena Spellman

In a barn on Maple Avenue in Great Barrington, Kathy Reisfeld merges two unlikely worlds: wealth management and yoga, teaching clients and students alike how stability — financial and emotional — comes from practice.

Her life sits at an intersection many assume can’t exist: high finance and yoga. One world is often reduced to greed, the other to “woo-woo” stretching. Yet in conversation, she makes both feel grounded, less like opposites and more like two languages describing the same human need for stability.

Keep ReadingShow less
Capitol hosts first-ever staging of Civil War love story

Playwright Cinzi Lavin, left, poses with Kathleen Kelly, director of ‘A Goodnight Kiss.’

Jack Sheedy

Litchfield County playwright Cinzi Lavin’s “A Goodnight Kiss,” based on letters exchanged between a Civil War soldier and the woman who became his wife, premiered in 2025 to sold-out audiences in Goshen, where the couple once lived. Now the original cast, directed by Goshen resident Kathleen Kelly, will present the play beneath the gold dome of Connecticut’s Capitol in Hartford as part of the state’s America250 commemoration — marking what organizers believe may be the first such performance at the Capitol.

“I don’t believe any live performances of an actual play (at the Capitol) have happened,” said Elizabeth Conroy, administrative assistant at the Office of Legislative Management, who coordinates Capitol events.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Hunt Library launches VideoWall for filmmakers

Yonah Sadeh, Falls Village filmmaker and curator of David M. Hunt Library’s new VideoWall.

Robin Roraback

The David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, known for promoting local artists with its ArtWall, is debuting a new feature showcasing filmmakers. The VideoWall will premiere Saturday, March 28, at 6 p.m. with a screening of two short films by Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker and animator Imogen Pranger.

The VideoWall is the idea of Falls Village filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, who also serves as curator. “I would love the VideoWall to become a place that showcases the work of local filmmakers, and I hope that other creatives in the area will submit their work to be shown,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less

A bowl full of stars

A bowl full of stars

A bowl full of stones.

Cheryl Heller

There’s a bowl in my studio where pieces of the planet reside. I bring them home from travels, picking them up not for their beauty or distinction but for their provenance. I choose the ones that speak to me — the ones next to pyramids, along hiking trails, on city sidewalks or volcanic slopes.

I like how stones feel in my hand: weighty, grounding. I don’t mind them making my pockets and suitcase heavier. The bowl is about the size of an average carry-on. It has been years since it was light enough for me to lift.

Keep ReadingShow less
One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library
One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library
One-woman show brings Mumbet’s fight for freedom to Scoville Library

On March 29, writer, producer and director Tammy Denease will embody the life and story of Elizabeth Freeman, widely known as Mumbet, in two performances at the Scoville Library in Salisbury. Presented by Scoville Library and the Salisbury Association Historical Society, the performance is part of Salisbury READS, a community-wide engagement with literature and civic dialogue.

Mumbet was the first enslaved woman in Massachusetts to sue successfully for her freedom in 1781. Her victory helped lay the legal groundwork for the abolition of slavery in the state just two years later. In bringing Mumbet’s story to life, Denease does more than reenact history.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.