Man helps pull drowning woman from water at Lake Winnisquam in Belmont
By Imani Fleming
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MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A man helped pull a woman from Lake Winnisquam in Belmont on Sunday afternoon after he said she was drowning.
The Belmont Fire Department told News 9 that several witnesses were already trying to help the woman when emergency crews arrived.
Jonah Schafer, one of the bystanders, said he acted quickly.
“I grabbed the pool floaty from my daughter, and I just ran in, and I had to go out there and run in there, and maybe 10-15 seconds,” Schafer said.
He said six others also swam out to help after hearing the woman screaming for help.
“We didn’t know what was going on. We heard her yelling, screaming for help, and then we kinda said she’s screaming for help and let’s go,” he said.
Schafer said the woman’s screams came from about 300 feet past the buoys at the Leslie E. Roberts Beach & Recreation Area. He said she appeared to be with a small group at the time.
“I heard ‘help’ a couple times, and then I was just like nobody else is moving, I’m going,” he said. “And in the water, there was a group of young men. They started swimming at right around the same time I ran to jump in the water, too.”
Once Schafer reached the woman, he focused on getting her safely to shore.
“I grabbed on to the woman with the floaty under one arm and grabbed the boogie board, and I just started kicking backwards and taking her back to shore,” he said.
Schafer’s wife, who is a nurse, and other beachgoers immediately began CPR.
“They performed CPR as best as they could. The fire department arrived shortly after that,” he said. “I couldn’t tell at that point what was going to happen.”
There is no word yet on the woman’s condition.
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