Encampment Removed From The Banks Of The Merrimack River

The City of Manchester worked to remove a highly visible encampment along the east side of the Merrimack River near Arms Park.

A person had assembled an encampment at the base of a wall near Arms Park, on the banks of the Merrimack River. The encampment grew over several months and generated several 9-1-1 calls for people who thought there was a person in the river as they drove by on 293.

Firefighters would respond with apparatus and boats to investigate the reports from the callers which generally resulted false alarms. The callers were seeing the homeless encampment and not someone in the river.

On Wednesday Clean Harbor, an environmental clean-up company had several workers on-site dismantling the encampment and cleaning up the side of the river. Workers wearing protective suits loaded a container that was lifted into a waiting dumpster.

Sources say that agencies worked with the occupant of the encampment prior to it being dismantled providing services to assist the man.

Manchester Firefighters stood by in boats to respond to any worker life-safety issues who were on the embankments of the swift-running river.

Last year the City of Manchester removed several encampments including a large one at Amoskeag Bridge and one behind Firestone on Elm Street. The State of NH removed encampments from the side of 293, and one outside the Hillsborough County Courthouse on Chestnut Street.

Manchester Firefighters with the assistance of mental health outreach teams visit several camps daily checking on the occupants and providing medical assessments and personal items. Several encampments remain across the city, but most have gone deeper into wooded areas to lessen their visibility.