FDNY rescues boy standing on frozen Bronx River
BRONX, N.Y. -- The FDNY rescued a young boy who wandered onto the frozen Bronx River Thursday.
Our sister station WABC captured the tense scene Thursday afternoon.
He was all by himself out there, standing alone on ice so thin that his friend had fallen through moments earlier.
Then you can see as a firefighter fell through trying to get to him. It was life or death stakes and that boy wanted out.
"I spoke to the young man and told him to stay where he was," said Captain Tom Yuneman, FDNY.
At first, they tried to throw a safety ring out to him, but didn't get it close enough.
The firefighter in the water tried to push it closer, but again came up short.
Firefighter Chris Harkenish was in the water wearing his cold weather suit, trying to get a ladder to the boy. One wrong move could be a disaster.
"The child began to step forward, then we told him 'please don't', we were worried that if he moved at all the ice was so thin that he would have been sucked in and sucked down the river," Harkenish said.
Harkenish could feel the current and was fighting it himself, finally they instructed the boy to get on the ladder.
It was like he'd done it a hundred times, as he made his way to safe and firm ground, helped by Harkenish.
The thin ice the boy was standing on looked like it could have buckled at any moment.
"They were exposed to the frigid waters and they had hypothermia," said Kevin Montgomery, FDNY.
He was standing all alone out there, but was smart enough to follow instructions precisely.
The dramatic rescue saved the life of a little boy, and that made the department feel great.
There was a second child, a girl, with the boy who earlier fell into the water but managed to get herself out before firefighters arrived.
The kids were playing in a park area with benches and a pavilion called Concrete Park, according to the witnesses.
Both children were evaluated at the scene before being taken to Jacobi Hospital for observation. The firefighter who went into the water was taken to the hospital.
