Two Rye High School 10th graders pulled two men out of the Long Island Sound on Saturday evening after their boat had become engulfed in flames.
Around 8:00pm Saturday, Teddy Shea and Joey Nigro were out fishing in the waters off Rye Playland in Shea’s 23 foot center console Sea Hunt called Shea Lounge. The two saw smoke to the West off Hart Island (in between Execution Rocks and City Island in the waters off the Bronx) and headed in that direction.
“We just saw two people in the water, and we saw their boat in flames,” Teddy Shea told MyRye.com Sunday morning. “So we grabbed them out of the water. There was a police boat beside me. So we gave them to the police boat once we grabbed them out of the water… There were other boats picking people up out of the water and giving them to the cops.”
Multiple jurisdictions responded to the boating accident. It was the New Rochelle Police that took the two men Shea and Nigro fished out of the Sound. The Rye PD Marine Unit also responded to the scene but on arrival the FDNY had the situation under control and did not need further assistance.
Shea said the boat that had caught fire after an apparent engine failure. The boat appeared to be about 30 feet long and he estimated about 20 had been on the boat and had jumped into the water. Media reports said three were injured (one critically) and 19 others had to swim from the boat before being rescued.
It was the first time Shea had rescued anyone.
“It was just basic. It’s the basic rescue. It’s not anything special or anything like that.”
Watch video from the scene:
