Camden County, NJ Local 3249 fire fighters assigned to Gloucester Township Squad Company 88’s A Platoon wrapped up their annual cold-water rescue training on Jan. 5, walking through every scenario and challenge.
That training came just in time as those scenarios turned into reality just before 2 p.m. that afternoon when a woman and her two dogs plunged through the thin ice of a pond in Timber Creek Dog Park.
“When someone is in the water, you don’t think about the cold or how hard the rescue is going to be. That’s when your training kicks in and you act,” said Nick Ritz, one of the responding Local 3249 fire fighters.
The woman had gone after her two dogs when they walked out onto the iced-over portion of a pond. She got about 35 feet across when the ice gave way and she fell in. A passerby saw right away that she could not get back out on her own and called 9-1-1.
There wasn’t an easy access point to the pond, so fire fighters drove their apparatus as close as possible, grabbed their equipment, and walked the final quarter of a mile to the pond.
Ritz and fellow Local 3249 member Rob Lindell tethered to the shore and donned cold-water entry suits to enter the water after them.
“She was really struggling to stay on top of the water and that had us all worried,” Ritz said. “The thinness of the ice made it difficult to get traction and move as quickly as we would have liked. It probably only took us three minutes to get to her, but it felt much longer.”
Ritz carried the woman while Lindell carried one of the dogs. The second dog was able to get out on its own. Once back on land, Local 3249 members carried the woman to the medic unit for transport.
“This emergency reminds us that no ice is safe ice,” said Local 3249 President Keith Kemery. “I am proud of our members for keeping up with their training and the great work they did to save the lives of this resident and her dogs.”
