2 teen swimmers rescued in Long Island Sound off Cutchogue

Firefighters responding to an emergency call rescued two swimmers who became separated from their boat in Long Island Sound on Thursday.

Cutchogue Fire Department officials said the incident was reported just after 5:30 p.m. off Duck Pond Point in Cutchogue after the two teenage swimmers were left stranded more than two miles from shore when the 23-foot Grady they'd been in became disabled and drifted off.

Officials said the two, each 16 years old, were found about four miles offshore.

The incident was reported in a 911 call to Southold Town Police at 5:38 p.m., fire officials said in an online account on the Cutchogue Fire Department website.

Authorities could not immediately detail how many people were aboard the boat or how the boat became disabled.

Responding to the beach at Duck Pond Point, officials said firefighters from Cutchogue deployed a rigid hull inflatable rescue boat, joined by additional marine units from both Southold Police and the Mattituck Fire Department.

Officials said a police marine unit made initial contact with the drifting boat and confirmed that the two teens were in the water, without life vests or personal flotation devices.

It was determined that the two were drifting eastward with the outgoing tide.

Fire officials said aviation units from the Suffolk County Police Department and U.S. Coast Guard joined the search, along with a rescue boat from the Southold Fire Department — with Cutchogue firefighters eventually seeing one of the stranded teens waving an arm to indicate her location in the Sound.

Officials said the girl was "visibly exhausted."

Cutchogue firefighters Capt. Joe Hinton, Lt. Christian Figurniak, Lt. Ken Pearsall and Lt. Bryan Zissel deployed a life ring from the rescue boat, and Zissel then went into the water to stay with the girl as the rescue boat moved to the second teen, who was about 200 yards away.

Officials said that boy was "at the point of exhaustion" and was quickly pulled aboard the inflatable.

The boat then returned to the scene where Zissel had remained in the water with the girl and pulled them aboard.

Both teens were evaluated on shore by an EMS crew, including a Stony Brook University Hospital paramedic first responder, and officials said both declined treatment and were released to their parents at the scene.

The disabled boat was towed to shore by Southold Police with assistance from Sea Tow.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”