Standing at the Kennebec River boat launch off U.S. Route 2, Skowhegan fire Chief Ronnie Rodriguez motions to where firefighters rescued a woman from the water Tuesday morning. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

SKOWHEGAN — Firefighters rescued a woman from the Kennebec River in Skowhegan on Tuesday morning.

The woman was located across from and just downstream of the boat launch off U.S. Route 2, near the Kennebec Banks Rest Area, Skowhegan fire Chief Ronnie Rodriguez said at the scene moments after the rescue.

An ambulance transported her to the hospital with serious injuries, Rodriguez said.

Dispatch logs show the call came into the Somerset County communications center just before 9 a.m.

Rodriguez said a caller had reported someone in the river farther upstream, near downtown. The boat launch is about 1 1/2 miles downstream of downtown Skowhegan, according to GPS mapping.

Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said later Tuesday that police believe the woman had been on the riverbank in the area near the walking bridge over the Kennebec River downtown when she ended up in the river and was pulled into the current.

The initial call to first responders indicated the woman had potentially jumped from the bridge, where some of her belongings were found, but her injuries were not consistent with a jump from that height into relatively shallow water, Bucknam said. She was treated for hypothermia and minor abrasions, Bucknam said.

The bridge platform is several stories above the river.

Firefighters initially went to multiple locations along the Kennebec River after receiving the report of someone in the water, Rodriguez said.

“As we heard the call going out on the police side, we took action to be prepared and started this way,” Rodriguez said. “While we were waiting for our personnel to arrive, we noticed what appeared to be a large object floating down the river.”

Skowhegan firefighters load their department’s boat onto a trailer after a water rescue on the Kennebec River Tuesday morning. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

Once sufficient personnel arrived at the boat launch where the “object” was spotted, Fire Department members launched a rescue boat, Rodriguez said. Firefighters soon determined it was a woman and reached her on the south side of the river, Rodriguez said. They transported her to the boat launch on the north side of the river.

The chief said the Skowhegan Fire Department — an all hazards department — trains for scenarios like Tuesday’s rescue by throwing a dummy off the walking bridge.

Often, it will end up on the north side of the Kennebec, across from the municipal wastewater treatment plant on Joyce Street, Rodriguez said. That is where he said he went first while other responders went straight to the boat launch farther downstream.

“Upon notification, we got here very fast,” Rodriguez said. “The key is getting us notified fast. This is what we train for. This is what we’re here for.”