— By ERIC FRANCIS

12/12/24

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - Hartford Police detectives investigating one overdose stumbled upon another hours later, punctuating their shift on Wednesday with a frantic and choreographed effort to save lives that is becoming a grim routine for area emergency services.

Three overdoses occurred in downtown White River Junction in less than 24 hours, beginning late Tuesday evening when a caller to 911 reported that a woman in her late 30s was unresponsive at the perennial homeless encampment beneath the Urban Bridge, not far from the Bugbee Senior Center.

Police cruisers and firetrucks raced through town and managed to save the woman; fellow “campers” identified her simply as Katy, saying they didn’t know her last name.  She survived the night at DHMC, although police said Wednesday she was reportedly in “bad shape.”

Detectives returned to the campsite shortly before noon on Wednesday to canvas for information about where she might have gotten the drugs when they discovered her boyfriend, a man in his early 40s whom campers said they knew only as “Chris”, unconscious and barely alive in a thin tent.

Investigator Eric Clifford said he and two other detectives called for help and began CPR, ultimately administering three doses of Narcan before Chris began to moan and come to. The police laid him out on a wooden pallet they found at the campsite, which made it easier to administer first aid amid the slushy mud and snow.

Hartford firefighters rush to help a man who was overdosing in the woods beneath the Urban Bridge in downtown White River Junction just before noon on Wednesday. All photos copyright Eric Francis.

Hartford firefighters rush to help a man who was overdosing in the woods beneath the Urban Bridge in downtown White River Junction just before noon on Wednesday. All photos copyright Eric Francis.

Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney arrived as first responders were marching the victim out on a backboard to a waiting ambulance. “We’ve been down here way too often,” he remarked.

The chief explained that the fire department has little in terms of jurisdiction over the campsite, which is more in the domain of the town’s health officer. But, he added, “Working on a solution to get people out of these conditions is a priority for me and the town.”

Some of the firefighters recognized Chris from a similar incident in the past and noted that he could be aggressive when he came to—and by the time he was being loaded on the ambulance he could be heard trying to yell through his oxygen mask before he was persuaded to calm back down.

A dozen Hartford police officers and firefighters performed CPR and administered three separate doses of Narcan before reviving a man in his early 40s who’d been discovered unconscious in a tent.

A dozen Hartford police officers and firefighters performed CPR and administered three separate doses of Narcan before reviving a man in his early 40s who’d been discovered unconscious in a tent.

A fellow homeless camper who identified himself as “Jack”—which he noted was not his real name—said he barely knew Chris and Katy beyond the fact that they were boyfriend and girlfriend and had arrived in the area the day before, pushing a grocery cart loaded with bags of belongings after having come down from Bradford.

“I saw them here on-and-off during the summer. They bounce around,” he said. Jack added he was not present when Katy overdosed but had heard about it when he returned from the previous night’s community dinner. He said that the only information Chris had gotten was “a call saying she was in Intensive Care and would be alright and that was it.”

Asked what could be done to help, Jack replied, “Housing. There’s just no affordable housing.”  Explaining that he had held down a job for over a decade as a cook at a local fast food restaurant before health conditions forced him off the job, Jack said “I ended up in the hospital for heart surgery. I’m 54 so I don’t get social security or any help, except for food stamps.”

The encampment beneath the Urban Bridge is clustered between trees and consists of a few tents wrapped in makeshift tarps.

The encampment beneath the Urban Bridge is clustered between trees and consists of a few tents wrapped in makeshift tarps.

Jack said he had no idea what issues had led the couple to come to the same impromptu campsite he has been in for the past several months—“I have no clue. I don’t bug people about their business”— but he said he was not surprised by the drug use.

“Oh yeah, there’s a major increase in the drug activity around here,” he said. “I don’t think it’s all fentanyl. Some of it is crack. I don’t know why, except people are desperate to escape.”

It had just gotten dark Wednesday evening when a third overdose occurred, this time during the nightly community dinner at the LISTEN Center on Maple Street.  Once again, police and fire crews raced through town, this time to revive a 31-year-old local resident with a long history of mental illness, previous overdoses, and almost daily encounters with police, the most recent having been just a couple of hours before after callers in downtown WRJ reported he was acting strangely on North Main Street.

Shortly after darkness fell, Hartford’s responders were called back out for another overdose, this time at the LISTEN Center, where a man in his 20s lost consciousness during the evening’s Community Dinner event.

Shortly after darkness fell, Hartford’s responders were called back out for another overdose, this time at the LISTEN Center, where a man in his 20s lost consciousness during the evening’s Community Dinner event.