Dog Falls Into Icy Pond, Saved by Officer and DPW Manager

Milltown, NJ - A Milltown police officer and the town’s public works manager risked their lives to save a black lab that had fallen into frozen Mill Pond Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Brian Knelle told Patch he was out on his regular patrol when he got the radio call at 10 a.m.: A dog had fallen into Mill Pond.

He raced to Mill Pond Park, where he saw the black lab about 20 yards out in deep, fast-moving water. Mill Pond is actually part of a tributary that feeds into the Raritan River.

The dog was stuck in a current, he said, and his front paws were clinging to frozen ice.

The 11-year-old lab, Vihar, was silent, Knelle said, not barking, but instead struggling to keep his head out of the frozen river water. The dog had already been in the water for nearly 10 minutes, and his owner, Stefan Pouchnikov, standing nearby was frantic.

Pouchnikov had been walking the dog in the park, off a leash, when the lab chased some ducks out onto the ice and fell through, he told the officer.

“At that point, I don’t know how much time he had left,” said Knelle of the lab. “He was definitely on borrowed time. With the current moving the way it was, it could have swept him under the ice.”

Milltown’s public works manager Ralph Jasionowski showed up at the same time. Along with Milltown rescue squad, they tried to break the ice with shovels.

But that wasn’t working. So Jasionowski made the decision: He would have to go out.

Knelle tied a homemade flotation device around Jasionowski — an empty laundry detergent container with rope he always keeps in his car — and Jasionowski ”shimmied out on the ice on his belly,” Knelle said.

He grabbed the lab’s collar and pulled him up out of the water and onto the ice. Using the rope, Knelle hauled them both in. They were two feet from shore, and Jasionowski pushed the lab back onto dry land.

That’s when the ice cracked and both Jasionowski and the officer fell into waist-deep water.

“It took my breath away, it was so cold,” said Knelle.

The two men were helped out, but Jasionowski was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated. The owner “hugged us, slapped our backs, shook our hand,” said Knelle. “He had been really nervous the whole time.”

As for the dog? He was rushed into a nearby patrol car to be warmed up, and is doing fine now, the officer said.

Photo: From left to right: Milltown Police Officer Armando Rosario, Sgt. Brian Knelle, Ryan Newman with Milltown Rescue Squad, Will Kaplan, also with Milltown Rescue, and dog owner Stefan Pouchnikov (in Devils jersey), with Vihar, the 11-year-old black lab.