By SANDY McGEE

LINCOLN — Two Pawtucket kayakers found themselves up a tree, literally, on the Blackstone River Friday.

Police, fire and rescue from both Cumberland and Lincoln were dispatched Friday afternoon to the Lincoln side of the Blackstone River, across from the Super Stop & Shop on Mendon Road in Cumberland.
Two men, believed to be in their late teens to early twenties, were kayaking just before the Pratt Dam around 1 p.m., when a powerful current grabbed their single boat.
“They were heading south towards Central Falls,” said Deputy Chief Tom Ryan of the Lonsdale Fire Department. “They got too close to the current. The current flushed them sideways and pushed them toward two trees. The kayak flipped over.”
The two men, both Pawtucket residents, quickly grabbed onto tree branches sticking out of the water. Witnesses, who were fishing along the river at the time, phoned for help.
“They were only in the water for about 10 to 15 minutes,” Ryan said. “They were about chest-high in the water.”
Lincoln Rescue workers threw a rope to the two men and pulled them safely to shore. The men were uninjured.
“They were about 20 feet from the shore at the time,” said the deputy chief. “Once we got them five feet in, they were able to walk the rest of the way.”
The trees, which aided in Friday’s rescue, are typically not underwater, according to Ryan. Heavy rains have caused the Blackstone River to rise in the past 24 hours.
“They grabbed onto trees not normally in the water,” he said. “The current is high right now.”
The National Weather Service measured the Blackstone River in Woonsocket at nearly six feet high on Friday afternoon. Flood stage is nine feet.
The men’s damaged kayak was still reportedly tangled in the river’s weeds at the scene Friday afternoon.