Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
As It Happens6:29Firefighters rescue swan trapped on frozen Connecticut river
When firefighter Jonathan Maggio first saw the swan trapped on the frozen Connecticut river, completely still with its head buried in its wings, he figured they were too late to save it.
It wasn’t clear how long the creature had been there, but it had long stopped moving. The onlookers and news reporters gathered on the river’s edge in Norwalk, Conn., believed it dead.
Still, Maggio said, they had to try.
“We didn’t want to leave it there one way or another,” Maggio, deputy chief of the Norwalk Fire Department, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “We wanted to certainly give it its best chance in case it was alive.”
Once the rescuers got down on the ice, Maggio said, the swan lifted its head, and his hope swelled.
“It changed everyone,” Maggio said. “People started clapping.”
‘Show him some love’
It was early last Thursday when Maggio got the news through a dispatcher that several concerned citizens had reported a swan had been stuck in the ice for several days on the Norwalk River.
Maggio says he’s been involved in more than a few animal rescues over his years of service, and he’d helped save more than one person from the icy waters.
“But this was the first for a swan,” he said.
The male swan was under a bridge in a section of the water that’s elevated from the tidal river. Maggio figures he must have swam there seeking shelter from the blustery winter weather, only to have the water freeze around his feet.
It took 23 people from the fire department and a local wildlife rescue agency some 30 minutes to rescue him. They used ropes, ladders and cold water suits to reach the creature, who lifted his wings nervously as they approached.
“I said, ‘Show him some love,’ you know, let him know we’re there to help,” Maggio said. “I tell you, in less than 10 seconds, I think it realized we were there to help.”
The rescuers wrapped blankets around the swan, who remained calm as they slowly chipped away at the ice around his body.
Once he was liberated from his icy prison, they hoisted him to safety in a basket, put him in an ambulance and transferred him to the local VCA Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center.
They’ve since nicknamed the bird Clancey, Maggio said.
Clancey expected to make full recovery
VCA spokesperson Noah Thomas said Clancey arrived at the hospital on a gurney “cold-stunned” and dehydrated.
Staff gently melted off the ice blocks stuck to his skin and feathers as they warmed his body and gave him some fluids.
“Within the hour, he was visibly brighter and started to recover,” Noah told CBC in an email.
Clancey is now recuperating at the Norwalk Veterinary Hospital, where he is expected to make a full recovery.
Maggio says he’s been doing rescue work for 30 years, and not every call ends this well. But when the swan was finally safe and loaded into the ambulance, he says everyone on the team was beaming proudly.
“This one will go down, certainly, in the history of my career,” Maggio said. “It felt really good.”