Woman and Dogs Pulled From Ice in Caught-on-Camera Rescue
The entire rescue was captured by a police body cam.
— -- A Utah woman and her dogs were pulled from icy waters in a dramatic rescue that was captured on a police body cam.
The woman, who was not identified, was found Sunday morning caught in freezing water at the Mantua Reservoir in Mantua, Utah, after falling through thin ice trying to reach her dogs who had run out onto the water.
The woman had been in the water for around two minutes before she was spotted 100 feet from shore by water employee, Thomas Braithwaite. Braithwaite is based in the neighboring city of Bringham and located the woman when he was making his rounds around the reservoir. Once spotting the woman, he attempted to throw a rope out to her and then called police for more help.
Officer Brad Nelson, a part-time police officer for Mantua, was the first to respond and used an ice rescue device to try to rescue the woman.
"It's essentially like a Frisbee with a rope tied around it," Nelson told ABC News, describing the device. "The first time or two the rope wasn’t long enough so I had to go out to the ice to get it so it was close enough to her."
Nelson said, at some points during the nearly eight-minute rescue, he saw only the woman's face as she struggled to stay afloat in the nearly 30-feet deep water and below freezing temperatures.
"She was hysterical and she got very weak and said she couldn’t hold on any longer," Nelson said. "Finally she was able to grab it and pull herself out of the ice."
In the body cam video of the rescue, the woman can be heard saying "I can't stand," at one point, and then "thank you so much" after she is rescued.
The woman was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and treated for exposure to the elements, according to Nelson. She was reunited with her dogs after being released and even called Officer Nelson to thank him for saving her life.
Nelson said the ice on the reservoir had just formed so was especially dangerous.
"The ice was only a day or two old so it was very, very thin," he said. "When I walked out I could hear it cracking under my feet."