It was a busy training day for NUSAR recently.

Members of Newtown Underwater Search And Rescue were in Oxford on November 8 for a training session with plans to look for and recover a small object. The morning ended up busier than expected, consistent with recent months for the all-volunteer team.

During the drill in the waters off Jackson Cove Town Park that morning, the team succeeded not only in finding the small object members were challenged to find, but it also found a much larger object: a full-size minivan.

Oxford police were contacted, and while NUSAR members were waiting for them to respond, the divers were dispatched to an emergency call. Across Lake Zoar, a woman became injured while hiking in Lower Paugussett State Forest. NUSAR’s boat was requested to the western shoreline of the lake to pick up the victim and those with her.

NUSAR’s team located the group, and stabilized and splinted the injured woman’s leg. All were transported to Eichler’s Cove in Sandy Hook, where a Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps crew was waiting to continue patient care.

The NUSAR team reconvened at Jackson Cove. With assistant from Oxford firefighters, state police, local police, and a local towing company, the submerged vehicle was pulled from the lake.

The minivan discovered that morning was not the same one involved with an incident in October, when a man drove into the same body of water, also from Jackson Cove.

NUSAR, along with many other agencies, had responded to Jackson Cove during the early morning hours of October 13, after it was reported that a vehicle had gone into the water with someone still inside it.

The initial call for that incident was over a cell phone, according to a post on NUSAR’s Facebook page. Because the exact location of the caller was initially unclear, first responders from Monroe, Newtown, Oxford, and Southbury were all dispatched.

Members of Oxford fire departments — Oxford Center, Quaker Farms and Riverside — located that vehicle near Jackson Cove. Additional agencies, including Oxford ambulance, state police, local police, and NUSAR were then directed to that location.

A deceased male was found inside the vehicle. The vehicle, and the man, were pulled onto shore by 2 am.

“Despite very difficult conditions, including driving rain, cold and darkness, all responding worked efficiently, professionally and cooperatively with each other,” NUSAR posted on its Facebook page a few days later.

Recent Months

NUSAR Chief Mike McCarthy pointed out that the October call was one of four recent emergencies the dive team has responded to.

“NUSAR has had an incredibly busy year,” he said on November 13.

In September, NUSAR assisted rescuers who needed to get an injured hiker out of a forest.

On August 1, the dive team responded to a call that turned into a fatality when a 30-year-old New Zealand man died after jumping from the Glen Road Silver Bridge. His unconscious body was recovered from the Southbury side of Lake Zoar. Efforts to resuscitate him failed.

The previous day, NUSAR was part of an overwhelming response to Roosevelt Drive in Seymour after a vehicle went into the water there. That car, with a mother and son inside it, was found in 15-20 feet of water, on its roof. Efforts to save both parties were unsuccessful.

Six weeks earlier, on June 10, NUSAR was requested in New Milford after two men in their early 20s disappeared under water while swimming in the Housatonic River near the Kent town line.

Divers found the body of one man on June 12, and the second man the following day.

The June, July, and August deaths illustrate one of many challenges of this pandemic year, according to McCarthy.

“People have been cooped up, and then going out to recreate on the water,” he said. “The incident in New Milford, those were people from New York, looking to find a peaceful place to go swimming.”

Plenty Of Training

Their quick, efficient response to emergency calls is in large part due to the continued training members of NUSAR undergo. Between the five calls since June, NUSAR has also “done a lot of training,” McCarthy said.

Training has been ongoing, and occasionally surprising. In addition to finding the vehicle in Oxford last weekend, the team had a surprise guest show up during another recent drill.

On September 4, while practicing side-scanning work, members were greeted by a black bear out for a swim near the Upper Paugussett State Forest.

Recent training has taken the team to Lake Lillinonah a few times. In June, a drop camera was used to locate a bicycle (NUSAR placed the bike, and then removed it, specifically for the training session). In July the group spent time using GPS and a trolling motor, did a boat dive, and worked with a drop camera.

In September divers did short sweeps, searching for an object in 25 feet of water. The team also found a sunken boat during that outing.

Also that month, NUSAR spent a Sunday evening at Taunton Lake co-training alongside members of the Region 5 Dive Team, searching for a small object.

Despite cold surface temperatures and very limited visibility — less than one foot at times — the team noted on its Facebook page following that session that four divers from each team did sweeps “with high accuracy on object location.

“Great cooperative effort with short support from both teams,” it was further noted.