Also on today’s menu:
Diver Drowns In Lake Winnipesaukee
Meteor, Maybe?
After being canceled last year due to COVID-19, Berlin’s RiverFire festival will take place this Saturday, Oct. 16, with bonfires on the boom piers in the Androscoggin River. Those piers were built in the river to allow workers to control the flow of logs making their downstream during the boom years of the logging industry. Wood has been loaded onto the boom piers, ready to be ignited at dusk.
Other events that are part of RiverFire will take place between Service Credit Union Heritage Park and the 12th Street Bridge. Due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, the Jack-O-Lanterns that traditionally are displayed on the pedestrian bridge will instead be spread out along the river to avoid congestion, and attendees are asked to wear masks and maintain physical distances. Hundreds of pumpkins have been handed out for carving.
Another event is the Zombie Poker Run, open to ATVs, Jeeps, and regular motor vehicles, with registration at 9 a.m. The event is sponsored by MOMS Jericho and MOMS North Country PowerSports. There also will be helicopter rides, providing a chance to view the foliage and some dramatic views of the river and city from the air.
The RiverFire 5K Run/Walk, to benefit Response-A Domestic & Sexual Violence Support Center, has been converted to a virtual event. Runners who registered for the event can pick out their route.
Diver Drowns In Lake Winnipesaukee
One of four divers in the area of Diamond Island in Gilford became unresponsive and subsequently died on Sunday, Oct. 10. Marine Patrol Sergeant Nicholas Haroutunian identified the victim as Gene Parker, 69, of Wakefield.
Marine Patrol was called to a reported water rescue at 10:16 a.m. Parker had been brought to the surface by a fellow diver but the diver and a passerby who offered assistance were unable to remove the victim from the water until Marine Patrol arrived. Marine Patrol Supervisor David Jones and the dive partner administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation while the victim was transported to shore, and members of Gilford, Laconia, Meredith, and Alton fire departments also assisted, but the victim died at the scene.
Although the investigation continues, foul play is not suspected.
Meteor, Maybe?
Residents of southern New Hampshire reported hearing a strange boom late Sunday morning, and the most common explanation was that a meteor burst in the upper atmosphere.
“Felt like someone set off a canon nearby (they do that here),” a resident of New Boston reported on volcanodiscovery.com in one of hundreds of comments that were made on social media about the sonic boom that was heard around 11:30 a.m. “Shook the walls and widows as well as the desk and chair where I was working.”
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