Forwarded from a Troy firefighter

So gang,

I know I preached to you guys a few years ago about the woman we had to rescue from the ice on Sylvan Glen Lake here in Troy. It´s time for another reminder. Today we got sent to a dog in the water on the lake. The lake was mostly frozen solid, but on the west side there was a large expanse of open water (the lake is artesian fed and about 80´ deep). The woman had her schnauzer mix (rescue dog, 2.5 years old) out for a walk. It saw a goose on the water and broke away from the woman.

The dog was fine till it hit the thin sheet of ice at the edges of the open water. It broke through about 50´ from the edges of the hard ice. The woman went after here dog and broke through as well. Fortunately she had not gone quite as far and she was able to roll herself back onto the hard ice.

When I arrived the dog was paddling water in the open water, surrounded by about 50´ of thin ice. Total it was about 250´ from the shore.

3 of us put the water rescue suits on (gumby suits) and went out trying to rescue the dog. Because the dog was in the middle of very thin ice, and our equipment is made for ice rescues, we had great difficulty trying to get through the thin ice. It was thick enough we couldn´t swim through it, but too thin to lay on top of and go over it. In the end, I had to make the tough decision that the dog was no longer a viable victim (after ½ hour of rescue attempt, plus response time ect), and we left the ice to await the arrival of the city row boat.

When the boat arrived, the 3 of us went back out and pulled the dog from the water. Unfortunately, despite the ambulance crew trying to revive her, she was deceased.

Please, if you´re around lakes or ponds this time of year, keep your dog on leash. There is no other way to guarantee that the dog will not get itself into danger. You may not be able to call it back in time, you never know how thick the ice is, there are way too many variables. I don´t let Faith off leash anywhere around water because, even though she listens well, those few seconds where she breaks after a goose or mouse could get her far enough out to get her into trouble.

If your dog does fall through the ice, call 9-1-1 for assistance. If that woman had not gotten herself out of the water we would have had the same difficulty getting to her as we did her dog. Ice water operations are very dangerous for firefighters. The three of us were exhausted after just 20 minutes of trying to get through the thin ice to the dog. One of my partners couldn´t even get himself back onto the thick ice and we had to pull him out. I was heartbroken that we couldn´t save the dog, but I wouldn´t have wanted to attend a funeral for a firefighter either.

Pass the word on, make sure all your fellow dog owners know how dangerous the ice is for a dog - and for the owner if they try to rescue the dog. And for the firefighters who respond.

Tonya