Couple, dog pulled from river in fourth Naperville water rescue this week

Emergency crews rescued two kayakers and a dog from the rain-swollen DuPage River in Naperville Friday afternoon, the fourth such incident in four days.

Crews were called to the east branch of the DuPage River just south of the foot bridge at 2:53 p.m., according to a statement from the Naperville Fire Department.

One of the kayakers had called 9-1-1 and said they had launched at Pioneer Park and were headed south when they capsized and got entangled in branches, according to fire officials. They were surrounded by tree limbs and fast-moving currents and had no safe way to get to shore.

Crews arrived within five minutes, and swimmers were deployed into the river with a safety line while support personnel set up another safety line downstream, the fire department said. The kayakers, a husband and wife in their fifties, were guided to shore by swimmers, where they were evaluated by paramedics.

The kayakers and their dog were wearing personal floatation devices, according to the fire department. No injuries were reported.

On Wednesday night, a man was spotted clinging to a tree in the river in the 1200 block of South Washington Street shortly before 8 p.m., fire officials said. He had entered the river in an inflatable canoe at Pioneer Park, but emergency crews were called when he never reached his destination. He was rescued unharmed.

Earlier Wednesday, three teenagers were rescued after a motorist spotted them trapped on an island in the river near 95th Street and Eagle Brook Lane just after 1 p.m., fire officials said.

On Tuesday, three people were rescued from the river after their raft flipped over near downtown Naperville’s Riverwalk, officials said previously. No one was injured in any of the water rescue incidents.

Naperville officials are warning residents to stay out of any flooded waterways, which could be dangerously fast-moving and filled with debris.

“In a flooding situation such as this, going into the water can be a matter of life or death,” Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said. “We encourage all people to stay away from all bodies of water until they are back to normal.”