In the afternoon hours of Oct. 8, 2023, reports were made of an overturned boat near East Beach in Westport. One sailor was seen clinging to the side of the boat’s hull, but the other appeared to be missing, according to District 1 Fire Chief Peter Andrade.

Conditions were less than favorable on the water because of waves cresting at heights between six to eight feet and offshore winds blowing between 25 to 30 miles per hour, yet five Marine 1 firefighters from District 1 headed out on their fire boat to respond to the report, Andrade said.

The five firefighters were Assistant Chief Timothy Lancaster, Captain Ryan Cabral, Captain Jeffrey Costa, Lieutenant Joshua Ferreira and Lieutenant Skott Gerald Rebello, who were recognized as Firefighters of the Year on Monday, Nov. 18 for their lifesaving efforts.

When the crew reached the overturned boat, they found one sailor clinging to its hull and rescued him, but they had difficulty locating the second man because he had decided to try to swim to shore.

The crew determined that due to the wind and current flow, the man would “definitely … be taken out to sea” if they didn’t find him, Andrade said.

It took the men about 10 minutes to find the missing man after they adjusted their coordinates, which Andrade said was “like a needle in a hay stack.”

Both sailors suffered from mild hypothermia, but they were in good shape otherwise, Andrade said.

“Normally, people in that kind of a sea would go back to the dock,” he said. “These guys fought through it, got out there, and saved two lives for what would have definitely been two recoveries, not rescues.”

District 1 is part of the Buzzards Bay Task Force and has a fire boat, which is why the crew was dispatched.

The Coast Guard wasn’t able to respond to the report because of the high winds and their boat was out of the area, facing a delay of 45 minutes to an hour. The New Bedford crew was also unavailable because their fire boat was facing mechanical issues.

Others in the Buzzards Bay Task Force were also unable to respond because their boats were smaller than Marine 1’s and wouldn’t have been able to endure the cresting waves.

“Our guys knew they were pretty much going to be heading out there with not a lot of help,” Andrade said.

He added that the firefighters “without doubt saved two lives that day.”