Aunt and two nieces are rescued from Cape beach

Tide pool may have deepened

An aunt and two nieces who were walking in the water at Mayflower Beach in Dennis on Thursday apparently fell into a deep tidal pool, prompting a rescue by lifeguards, beachgoers, and firefighters, officials said Friday.

The three were rushed to Cape Cod Hospital in Barnstable Thursday by firefighters who responded to the tidal beach facing Cape Cod Bay just before 3 p.m., officials said.

The aunt is 45 and her nieces are 15 and 11, Dennis Fire Chief Chris Guerreiro said Friday.

The aunt remains in Cape Cod Hospital and the 15-yearold was transferred to a Boston hospital, Guerreiro said. The 11year-old is no longer hospitalized.

Their injuries are not considered life-threatening, Guerreiro and Lieutenant Peter Benson, a police department spokesman, said.

Beachgoers can walk out to a sandbar at Mayflower Beach during low tide, Guerreiro said. But as the tide rolls in, tidal pools suddenly become much deeper, he said.

“It’s not uncommon that you might have walked through a smaller tidal pool on the way out to a sandbar or an area and as you were coming back in that water’s deeper now,” he said. “They developed some difficulty. It was over their head when they came back. And it was very windy.”

The aunt was “just trying to make sure her nieces were OK, to do whatever she could to make sure they got through it,” he added.

Police said the surf conditions were higher than normal with a strong offshore wind.

Three lifeguards from the town’s Recreation Department were the first to reach the three relatives after the youngest victim was seen waving for help from the water, police said.

The woman and her nieces were placed on two rescue boards and were brought to shore, where they received initial medical treatment from lifeguards and at least one nurse who happened to be on the beach, officials said.

Two of the victims “needed immediate lifesaving treatment,” police said.

The relatives were placed on backboards and taken off the beach on an ATV used for water emergencies, Guerreiro said.

A Dennis police detective interviewed two of the victims at Cape Cod Hospital Thursday. Police said all three victims were “conscious and alert” when the detective left the hospital. The fire department activated all its personnel to respond to the beach and handle other calls for service, Guerreiro said.

“Rescues on beaches are pretty manpower-intensive to begin with. And then you have multiple patients,” Guerreiro said. “In this case, we wanted to make sure everyone was accounted for.”