Police rescued three people and a dog from the icy Concord River in Bedford, Massachusetts, on Saturday afternoon, the department said.
The three people fell in one after the other, according to Bedford police, all after the dog went into the water through the ice at the Concord River boat ramp on Carlisle Road.
The incident was reported at 2:41 p.m. First, the dog's owner went into the water while trying to rescue her pet. Someone else they were with then fell through the ice, according to police. And a good Samaritan who saw it all happening came jumped in to help them.
The officers who arrived threw in rescue disks attached to rope and were able to get all three people and the dog ashore within minutes, police said.
The woman was taken to a local hospital for cold exposure; the two other people who'd been in the water and the dog were not hospitalized.
"They did an incredible job and were able to pull everyone from the water before anyone was seriously injured. I also want to urge residents to stay off the ice. While no natural ice is ever 100 percent safe, icy waterways in Bedford are absolutely not safe for any human activities at this time," Chief John Fisher said in a statement.
Two of the officers who were part of the rescue have been on the job for less than 90 days.
"They were close enough to shore that we were able to help. But it was a tense situation, especially being cold out," Officer Patrick Coady said.
Other first responders have been saying the same thing in the last few weeks, when bodies of water have frozen over but people have still fallen through, including a film crew in Acton, a teenager on the Arlington Reservoir and, tragically, a woman who died apparently after chasing after her dog in a Beverly lake.
Ryan Laracy, a deputy chief at the Beverly Fire Department, told NBC10 Boston after the woman's body was found that, for people who fall into icy water, it would be "only seconds before you start losing strength in the cold."
