Deer Rescued From Reservoir By Stamford Firefighters

STAMFORD, CT — Stamford firefighters, with assistance from both Stamford and New Canaan Animal Control, were able to pull a deer off the ice of a reservoir Thursday. According to New Canaan Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm, part of the reservoir is in Stamford and part is in New Canaan.

New Canaan Animal Control was alerted of the incident around 8:30 a.m. (To sign up for Stamford breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

"The deer hadn’t fallen through the ice," Halm said. "What happens is when they go walking out on the ice, they lose their footing and then they can’t get back up. It was obviously struggling to get up, and that sets in exhaustion and eventually hypothermia, and they would indeed die out there."

Halm subsequently reached out to Stamford Animal Control, who then contacted Stamford firefighters. Further complicating matters was how far the deer gone out, which was very close to where the ice had stopped freezing and turned into open water.

After determining the best way to access the live animal was from the New Canaan side of the reservoir, a firefighter in a rubber suit crawled to the deer on hands and knees and secured a rope around it. The deer was then gently dragged onto a bank and into a warm area.

"It didn’t get up right away," Halm said. "It couldn’t; it was exhausted."

According to Halm, while incidents like this do not happen often, they have happened in the the past. She recalled a past incident in which a buck was trapped out on the ice, however officers subsequently discovered the animal had died before they got there.

Fortunately, this incident resulted in a happy ending thanks to the firefighters' quick actions.

"It was very hard for the fire department just to even get access to that part of the reservoir," Halm said. "The guys were great. They put themselves at risk for that deer and I was proud of them."

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