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Three firemen, police officer rescue woman who jumped off the Water Street Bridge.

Pittston Fire Chief Jim Rooney talks with a reporter Monday afternoon after the rescue of a woman who jumped from the Water Street Bridge into the Susquehanna River.

AIMEE DILGER/THE TIMES LEADER

PITTSTON – Three city firefighters and a police officer swam into the Susquehanna River and rescued a woman who jumped off the Water Street Bridge on Monday afternoon.
City Director of Public Safety Joe McLean said emergency crews received a report of someone about to jump into the river at 2:34 p.m.
Fire Chief Jim Rooney said that when first responders arrived, the woman had already jumped and was spotted floating down the middle of the river.
Wearing safety vests, carrying a personal flotation device and holding on to a rope secured at the water’s edge by other responders, firemen Joe Kelley, his brother Rob Kelley, Tony DeGeralimo and police Sgt. Robert Semyon entered the river from the east side, just south of where the woman was floating, headed her off and swam her to the west shore, Rooney said.
The Germania, Wyoming and Duryea dive and river rescue teams also responded.
The four rescuers and the woman, whose name and age were not released, were taken to hospitals for evaluation. Any rescuer who entered the river also was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Rooney said.
Rescuers had to deal with the risk of swallowing water heavily laden with bacteria. Several rescuers said raw sewage was abundant in the river because recent heavy rains overloaded local sewage treatment plants in communities that have combined stormwater and sewage lines.
McLean said the rescuers are to be commended for accomplishing a rescue in an especially dangerous part of the river.
The rescue took place around the site of the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster, in which the Susquehanna broke through the thin rock of the Knox Coal Co.’s River Slope Mine that ran just 6 feet below the riverbed.
It took three days to partially plug the hole in the riverbed by dumping railcars into the whirlpool formed by the water draining into the mine.
“There are still a lot of disrupted areas. You never know what you’re dealing with out here. You’ve got swirls and eddies. It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing if you get sucked into one of those,” McLean said.
“We have some tremendously trained individuals. They risk life and limb. It’s above and beyond the call of duty,” McLean said.