2 Coast Guard Crewmen Die, 2 Rescued After Boat Accident

A Coast Guard boat capsized on the Niagara River along the U.S.-Canada border and two of the four crewmen died Saturday after floating for hours in the icy water.

The 21-foot boat was found floating bow up along the shore of Lake Ontario about a mile east of the mouth of the river, and the crewmen were rescued soon after midnight a couple of miles away, said Chief Petty Officer Adam Wine at the Coast Guard’s Buffalo station.

“A 4-foot wave hit the bow of the boat, swamping it and flipping it over,” Wine said.

The crew had set out Friday evening from Youngstown, 20 miles northwest of Buffalo on the lower Niagara River, on an assignment that included watching for illegal immigrants.

The border runs along the middle of the 45-mile-long river. Niagara Falls lies midway along the river between lakes Erie and Ontario.

Petty Officer Scott Chism, 25, of Lakeside, Calif., and Seaman Chris Ferreby, 23, of Morristown, N.J., were both in cardiac arrest when they were pulled out of the water and both died Saturday morning, Wine said.

They may have been in the water for more than four hours, he said.

The other crewmen were treated for hypothermia.