Two Barge Crewmembers Injured in Pump Accident

On Monday evening, a response boat from Coast Guard Station Fire Island, New York medevaced two individuals from a barge in Fire Island Inlet.

Station Fire Island received a call for assistance from the barge Reggie at about 1700 hours. According to the vessel's crew, a malfunction of a barge pump system had resulted in multiple injuries, including a head injury and lacerations.

A Coast Guard rescue crew in a 45-foot response boat arrived on scene within half an hour. Two crewmembers from the Reggie were safely transferred from the barge and taken to emergency medical services at Station Fire Island, where they were transferred to a hospital in West Islip. The third crewmember aboard the barge was transported to the same hospital by the vessel’s safety officer.

The crewmembers' conditions are currently unknown, and their names have not been released to the public.

The only barge named Reggie on the U.S. Coast Guard's registry is a jack-up equipped with a large booster pump, and it is used as auxiliary equipment by an American dredging company. The Reggie's operator holds an ongoing contract for maintenance dredging in Fire Island Inlet.