BETHEL — An Oxford County Sheriff’s Office detective waded across a shallow stretch of the Androscoggin River late Tuesday morning in West Bethel to rescue a distressed woman on Swain’s Island, Bethel fire Chief Mike Jodrey said.

Jodrey said Tuesday evening that Detective Thomas Harriman then carried the woman, whose identity was not released, back across the river to a waiting PACE ambulance crew.

It was not known if she was treated at the scene or taken to a hospital.

When the 11 a.m. call came in about a distressed woman in the river near the Androscoggin Acres subdivision off Barker Road, which parallels Route 2, Bethel police, Harriman and Bethel firefighters responded.

The firefighters took their rescue boat to the West Bethel boat launch on the river.

“It was just above her, so we figured we would float downstream to her, but Oxford County Detective Harriman fished her out,” before they arrived, Jodrey said.

He said the woman was on Swain’s Island, which is owned by Ruel Swain and is located between Route 2 and Riverside Cemetery on the North Road.

Jodrey said he wasn’t sure who called 911 to report the woman’s predicament, but “there were a couple of individuals in a canoe doing a trip down the river and they came across her.”

The Sheriff’s Office referred inquiries for details to the Maine Warden Service, which sent Warden Joshua Smith to the scene. No further details were available by Tuesday evening.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com