Published July 02. 2020 12:20PM
A suspicious object that turned out to be a floating device was recovered from the Lehigh River on Wednesday.
Carbon County Emergency Management director Mark Nalesnik said the incident occurred around midday.
“A hiker walking the trail noticed something underneath the surface of the water on the Lehigh River looking down on it from the trestle,” Nalesnik said, adding that she noticed something that looked to be in the form of a one-piece watersuit. “The Nesquehoning Police Department responded and were observing this from the trestle along with me until the (Lehighton Fire Department) water rescue raft came down from upstream.”
Nalesnik said the Lehighton Fire Department Water Rescue Team responded and recovered the object, which had a bright yellow look to it and turned out to be a marker buoy.
He said they remained on scene for about an hour, and added they also received assistance from the Jim Thorpe Borough fire chief.
Nalesnik lauded the Lehighton Fire Department Water Rescue Team for its work.
“The Lehighton Fire Department Water Rescue Team as always did an excellent job in responding and conducting operations in a safe manner to protect all our responders, followed their procedures, and came up with a plan on how to acquire that item; it was in a difficult spot,” he said. “They did an excellent job as always.”
The Lehighton Fire Department Water Rescue Unit was called into service Wednesday morning by Nesquehoning police. The incident began before noon when someone reported a suspicious object in the Lehigh river near the old railroad trestle. The rescue unit placed a raft onto the river at the beach of the Lehigh Gorge state park. A short time later crews reached the area and determined the item to be a marker buoy. Carbon county Emergency Management director Mark Nalesnik led the operation, assisted by state park rangers. Lehighton fire police maintained traffic control at the scene. COPYRIGHT LARRY NEFF/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS