Keep Buggering On S3E2 “Run Towards It” — The Fire Lieutenant, the Lobster Boat, and the Car in Harbor Cove
Run Towards It: Harbor Cove Rescue Heavyweight Oversized Unisex Hoodie
Off-duty Lt. "Buddy" Doucette and the crew of Tight Lines — Gloucester, MA, May 18, 2025
On the morning of Sunday, May 18, 2025, a car drove around the granite barriers at St. Peter's Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts, went over the seawall, and plunged roughly 15 to 20 feet into Harbor Cove, landing upside down in the water. Off-duty Gloucester Fire Lt. William "Buddy" Doucette was working on his own boat nearby, tied up next to lobster boat captain Mark Lodge, when he heard the crash and saw the car go airborne off the pier. Doucette didn't wait for a truck or a crew — he jumped straight into the water. Lodge grabbed a sledgehammer, reached down under the surface, and broke one of the car's windows on the first strike, opening the door below the waterline. Crew members from the Gloucester-based lobster boat Tight Lines joined Doucette and a small group of bystanders in the water, working to free three women trapped upside down inside the submerged vehicle, still strapped into their seatbelts. Using a lobsterman's knife to cut through the belts and working together to keep the women's heads above the surface, the group got all three out before Gloucester Fire's official response arrived on scene. It was low tide, not high — a detail Deputy Fire Chief Tom LoGrande later said made the difference between a rescue and a tragedy. All three women were conscious and alert when pulled from the water and were taken to area hospitals; Doucette was treated for minor injuries of his own. "There wasn't any time to be scared," Doucette said afterward. "If they didn't get out of the water they would have died... I'm always the person that runs towards it." The story drew only a single day of regional coverage — but it's exactly the kind of rescue KBO exists to remember: no orders given, just people close enough to act.
Sources
● Gloucester Fire Department, official incident release, May 18, 2025
● CBS News Boston, "3 women rescued from partially submerged car by bystanders in Gloucester"
● The Local News, "Three rescued in Gloucester after car plunges into water"
● People.com, "Off-Duty Firefighters Rescue 3 After Car Plunges '15-20 Feet' Upside-Down into Water"