Car in Manchester river will get fished out Thursday

May 08-- May 8--MANCHESTER -- What rolls in the river must be fished out of the river.

A car that ended up submerged in the Piscataquog River last week is expected to be returned to dry land Thursday.

The state is using a company it contracts for spill responses to hire divers and a tow truck company to retrieve the underwater 2012 silver Ford Fusion.

"The dive team will go in and float the car, and the towing company will then remove the vehicle," said Jim Martin, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Services.

Manchester firefighters and a Nashua fire dive team helped locate the car and make sure no one was inside a week ago.

Car owner Mike Rourk said that he left his keys in the car in the parking lot of the Electric Street boat ramp near Bremer Street on May 2, went for a walk and saw his car in the river when he returned.

"Obviously, someone drove it in the river," he said in an interview last week.

District Fire Chief Brendan Burns said the episode appears accidental.

"The car may have just been left in gear unattended," Burns said Wednesday.

Martin said removing vehicles or snowmobiles from bodies of water is "not an unusual situation" in the state, especially in the winter time.

Martin said the cost will depend on how long the job takes.

"I'm told it's not going to be cheap," he said.

Martin said the car owner doesn't have the money to pay to remove the car, and that a finance company would take over ownership.

"We'll probably seek to recover from them," he said.

Rourk, who didn't have car insurance, didn't return a phone message left Wednesday.

The last update from a DES employee indicated "there wasn't any sheen reported coming from the vehicle," which would indicate an oil or fuel leak, he said.

Melody Bjorkman walked along a pedestrian bridge not far from the sunken car Wednesday afternoon.

"You don't leave your keys in your car in Manchester," the city resident said.

She recalled watching a truck pulled from a nearby pond a half-dozen or so years back.

"I don't know how it had gotten in there," she said.

Rescue crews last week unsuccessfully tried to help and connect a tow truck cable to the Ford Fusion.

"They need to use airbags and float the car closer to shore," Burns said.

mcousineau@unionleader.com

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