Sylvie, a 13-year-old Siberian husky, was out for a walk with her owner at Pleasure Bay by Castle Island in South Boston when she ran onto the frozen water and broke through. By the time Boston firefighter Sean P. Coyle reached her in January 2014, she had been in the freezing harbour for about half an hour.
Sylvie the husky falls through the ice at Pleasure Bay
Pleasure Bay is a sheltered loop of Boston Harbor enclosed by a causeway that leads out to Castle Island, a popular spot for walks along the South Boston waterfront. In a cold snap its surface skins over with ice that looks solid from the shore but is thin enough to give way under a running dog. Sylvie went through well out from the edge, too far for anyone on land to reach.
How Sean P. Coyle of Ladder 19 reached her
Crews from the Boston Fire Department responded, and Coyle, a seven-year veteran of South Boston’s Ladder 19, pulled on a cold-water survival suit. He went out across the ice on a Stokes basket, a rigid rescue stretcher that spreads a rescuer’s weight like a sled, while colleagues on shore held the rope tied to him.
“As I got closer, I could see the ice was encapsulating him,” Coyle told the Boston Herald. He approached slowly with his hand held out, then lifted the shivering dog from what the Herald described as 20-degree water. The ice broke under him too, and the firefighters on land hauled both of them back by the rope. Sylvie was reunited with her owner on the shore.
Coyle estimated that Sylvie had less than half an hour left: “He was frozen and real scared.” A person, he said, would probably not have survived more than about ten minutes in those conditions. A husky’s dense double coat buys time in cold water, but even a dog bred for Arctic weather cannot hold out for long once wet fur and frigid water draw the heat from its body.
“We look at the pets like citizens”
Boston Herald photographer Mark Garfinkel’s pictures of the rescue were shared widely, and Coyle’s attitude struck a chord. “We look at the pets like citizens,” he told the paper, adding that a life is a life “whether it’s four-legged or two-legged.”
What to do if a dog falls through ice
Sylvie’s rescue worked because it was carried out by trained firefighters with a survival suit, a flotation device and a tether to shore. Owners who go after a dog themselves often end up in the water too. Call 911 at once, keep the dog in sight so you can tell rescuers exactly where it went in, and call to it to keep it calm and pointed toward the bank. Keep dogs on a leash near frozen ponds, rivers and harbour edges in winter; ice over moving or salt water is especially unreliable.
Other icy-water rescues: another dog rescued from icy water and a much larger animal stranded in ice.
Related reading
- Hovercraft Deer Rescue on Albert Lea Lake
- A Young Squirrel Brought Indoors: The Rescue Photo Sequence
- People Helping Animals: Separate Rescues in One Compilation
- Men Free A Baby Moose Who Got His Front Legs Stuck In A Fence.
- Two Kittens Found in a Snow-Covered Box: The Full Rescue Account
No comments