NORWAY — Area firefighters donned cold-water rescue suits Saturday morning to rescue a dog trapped in the ice on Lake Pennesseewassee.
About 7:15 a.m April 13, residents heard the panicked yelping of Gage, a 5-year-old mixed-breed, who broke through an ice sheet on the northwest corner of the lake.
About 13 firefighters from Norway and Paris used an inflatable rescue craft to reach the trapped canine. The rescue took about 30 minutes.
On Monday, Norway Assistant Chief Tim Yates said he was the first on the scene and the dog was about 200 yards from the department’s staging area off Youngs Lane on the northeastern shore.
Seeing the dog “in severe distress” so far out and knowing it would take rescuers time to reach it was “not a good feeling,” Yates said.
Rescuers paddled across open water until they reached the sheet of ice, Yates said. To get to the dog, Yates half-swam, half-crawled through the soft ice, which seemed to “take forever,” he said.
With two paws on the ice, the dog was able to keep its head above water until rescuers arrived, helped by owner Jonathan Palmer. He reached the dog with a canoe shortly before firefighters put their craft in the water.
Yates credited the speedy success of the rescue to the Fire Departments’ teamwork.
“We’re just thankful the dog … held on,” Yates said.
“Everything worked out like we wanted it to,” he said. “We were very happy in the long run.”
Despite being trapped in the icy water for nearly an hour, Palmer said Sunday that Gage was back to his old self.
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- Gage, a 5-year-old mixed-breed, is wrapped in a blanket after spending nearly an hour trapped on Lake Pennesseewassee in Norway on Saturday. Firefighters from Norway and Paris rescued the dog.
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