A Boston firefighter braved frigid cold to rescue a dog who fell through Boston Harbor’s ice into the freezing cold water at Pleasure Bay, reports The Boston Herald.
Sylvie, a 13-year-old Husky, was walking with her owner when she ran across the ice near Castle Island and fell through. After receiving the call, firefighter Sean P. Coyle of Ladder 19, a seven-year vet, donned the survival suit and rode out onto the ice using a sled-type piece of equipment called the “stokes basket.”
“As I got closer, I could see the ice was encapsulating him,” Coyle said. “He was frozen and real scared, I’d say he had less than half an hour left.”
The dog already had been in the 20-degree water for a half-hour, and a human would likely not have survived longer than 10 minutes, Coyle said.
After approaching Sylvie with his hand held out, Coyle successfully pulled the shivering animal out of the water — but fell in himself. Coyle was attached to a rope and pulled out by fellow firefighters on the land.
Sylvie was reunited with her happy owner on the shore.
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