Hartford firefighters anchor rope lines to the railing on the south side of the Quechee Gorge bridge Saturday morning as they prepare to lower two of their fellow firefighters to the Ottauquechee River 163-feet below. (Eric Francis Photo)
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By Eric Francis, Standard Correspondent
QUECHEE – Police believe that a man who jumped to his death early Saturday morning in the Quechee Gorge was not from the local area; however, they cautioned that they have not yet been able to make a positive identification.
The fatal incident, which took place just before 7:30 a.m., is the second such suicide at the Gorge in just three week’s time and follows on a year in which no one died at the scenic landmark.
The incident prompted a three-and-a-half hour recovery effort and forced traffic to detour off approximately a mile of Route 4 and travel through the center of Quechee instead.
Hartford Police Chief Phil Kasten said that efforts to identify the man were still in their early stages and he noted that each investigation into a suicide at the Gorge, including the one at the end of January in which a 22-year-old Hartford man died, takes his department two to three weeks to fully complete.
“The 911 center received a call from a passing motorist of a man standing on the opposite side of the railing and our police officers came to investigate,” Kasten explained Saturday morning at the scene, adding, “It’s unfortunate that anyone feels that they need to come to this point and time in their life and resort to this. We hope that folks understand that there are people here to help them and they can call on us.”
The chief pointed to emergency call boxes and signs located prominently on both ends of the Route 4 bridge, saying, “The state and Headrest have located resources right here at the bridge and (Hartford Police) are a minute or two away. Our staff does a great job of helping to connect folks with assistance. That’s all they need to do – ask for help – and we can help them and it’s confidential.”
“Our preference is that they give us a call and come right to the police station but if this is where they decide to come and ask for help we’ll come here,” Chief Kasten emphasized, “It doesn’t need to come to this.”
Although the body was in the river on the northern side of the bridge this time, Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney said his Rescue From Heights Team was going to use essentially the same set up that they built at the end of January to lower a pair of firefighters down the icy slopes to the river.
“Hartford Fire partnered with Hanover and Lebanon fire departments this morning to conduct the recovery,” Chief Cooney explained. “We are going to set up a lowering system on the downstream side of the bridge to lower two rescuers to the base of the Gorge. They’ll have to proceed on foot upstream to where the recovery is going to take place right below the snack bar. Once they get there they will package the patient into a “Stokes” (wire mesh) basket and once the individual is in there we will hoist him to the deck of the bridge using a mechanical hauling system on the back of our Forestry truck.”
“It’s the same set of terrain this time and we know this system works from previous experience so we are going to utilize that system again because we are familiar with it,” the fire chief said.