Deer Falls Through Ice, Rescued in South Amboy (VIDEO)

SOUTH AMBOY, NJ — An 18-month-old deer fell through the ice in a frozen pond in South Amboy Friday evening and likely would have frozen to death and drowned if it hadn't been first spotted by South Amboy Animal Control and then rescued by the Sayreville Fire Department's ice rescue team. The dramatic rescue took place sometime before 6 p.m. Dec. 16 at Waterworks Park in South Amboy. The deer fell through the thin ice that covered a small pond in the park.

The park sits right off the North Jersey Coast rail line and is visible to anyone on the train. South Amboy Animal Control officers first saw the deer's head bobbing above the water, they told WABC7, which captured the entire rescue on tape. He had been in the freezing water for at least 90 minutes at that point, they estimated. That was when three volunteer Sayreville firefighters, dressed in full ice suits, entered the frozen pond to pull the struggling deer ashore.

"It was struggling to stay afloat," said volunteer firefighter Chris Mierzwiak, 21, one of the three who entered the water. "The initial idea was to get the deer ... and extract it as fast as possible, but it was a lot harder because you can't talk to the deer."

"When I got there the deer was about 400 feet out and it was barely above the water," Chief Vincent Waranowicz of the Sayreville Fire Department told Patch. "You could tell it was fighting and struggling. It kept trying to get up on top of the ice but it couldn't."

Mierzwiak and another volunteer firefighter immediately suited up and walked across the pond. They had trained for two years for this, but Friday was their very first ice rescue.

"They were able to walk most of the way across the pond, but once they got to the deer, they fell through, too. But they were prepared. We train for that. You know that in any ice rescue, when you approach the victim, you're probably going to fall through the ice, too," Chief Waranowicz said.

The deer had been panicking, he said, but eventually it got so tired and weak that it became very pliant and followed Mierzwiak's lead. He was able to pull the animal up onto a sled and Sayreville firefighters hauled him to shore.

The deer was so cold his fur was covered in ice, Waranowicz said. Firefighters put a blanket on him and warmed him up. Thirty minutes later, he was released into nearby woods.

"He actually hung out by us and didn't want to leave for while. We finally had to chase it into the woods. He realized we were there to help him," he said.

The entire rescue took about 30 minutes. "I see a lot of comments on social media and everything, why are they risking their lives for a deer? But at the end of the day, a life is a life," said Chief John Kelly of the South Amboy Fire Department.

Sayreville's Fire Department has been training for ice rescues for two years, but this was their first actual rescue. Members of the Melrose Hose Company and the President Park Fire Company in Sayreville were the ones that responded, along with members of the South Amboy Fire Department. These photos have been provided by the Melrose Hose Company, and the video is from WABC 7.