By Matt Gryta
The Buffalo News
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — A 70-year-old city man who fell through a thin sheet of ice into Hyde Park Lake while trying to retrieve one of his dogs Wednesday was pronounced dead a short time later in Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.
Mayor Paul A. Dyster lauded the fire and police crews who risked their lives trying to save the man, whose name was not released Wednesday night.
Police Superintendent John R. Chella told The Buffalo News that the man was in critical condition when he was pulled from the lake shortly after 3 p.m. and was pronounced dead about three hours later.
Chella said that the man had local relatives and that his name would not be released until relatives out of state can be contacted.
“The man lived alone here,” Chella said.
The man was walking his three golden retrievers when one of the dogs ran onto the ice atop the lake, and he went after the dog.
Police Capt. David H. LeGault said officers received an emergency call just after 3 p.m. from two young boys who saw the man fall through the ice into the lake, which is 15 to 18 feet deep.
A Rural/Metro Medical Services ambulance was on the scene within a minute of the call, followed shortly by city patrol cars and firefighters, authorities said.
Dyster, in particular, cited Fire Department Battalion Chief Dan Boland, who risked his life by going out on the ice, then swimming part way out to the man, about 25 to 30 feet offshore. He worked with other firefighters to bring the man ashore.
Back at Fire House 8 on Royal Avenue on Wednesday night, about three-quarters of a mile from the lake, Boland said he and a fire crew had just come back from the lake when the emergency call came in.
They had gone to Hyde Park for an ice rescue training session but called it off because the ice surface was deemed too dangerous.
Because two boys reported seeing someone who had been walking on the ice go under, emergency responders thought it was possible that a child had fallen into the frigid lake.
Boland, playing down his heroism, said firefighters were “always thinking this is going to happen someday” because the lake is near an elementary school.
He said he and his crew rushed back to the lake thinking they would be looking for a child underwater.
When public safety crews arrived, they were greeted by three barking and frantic golden retrievers, apparently owned by the man.
Boland said he thought he was pulling a boy as he dragged the fully clothed and unconscious victim to the shore with the help of Fire Capt. Jason A. Zona, a Police Department rope and ladder, and five fellow firefighters.
It turned out that it was an adult.
After that, two firefighters donned winter water rescue gear and went into the water with poles and bars, searching until they were sure no one else went under the ice.
The mayor said he is proud of the city firefighters’ tradition of always “being prepared to run into harm’s way to help others.”
Police said the three dogs were picked up by representatives of the SPCA of Niagara late Wednesday afternoon.
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