Manchester officer rescued after falling through ice

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December 22, 2009

Group effort saves dog owner who went after pets

By Bruno Matarazzo Jr. The Gloucester Daily Times Tue Dec 22, 2009, 05:44 AM EST

HAMILTON — A reserve police officer in Manchester is recovering after falling through the ice at Pleasant Pond yesterday as he tried to rescue his two dogs.

Evan Surcharski of Leigh Road in South Hamilton — and his dogs — are fine, thanks to the work of a service technician who heard him yelling for help, along with on-call firefighters, police and neighbors who worked together to pull him to safety.

"We used our training and did our job," fire Capt. Dan Ellison said.

But the rescue offers an important lesson.

"The big thing is to get the word out: Right now, there is absolutely no ice in the area that is safe to be on. People have to use their noggin and keep off the ice," Ellison said.

Fire Chief Phil Stevens said Surcharski saw his dogs fall through a hole in the ice and went after them. Surcharski, who had on snowshoes, thought it would help distribute his weight better, Stevens said.

"It didn't work," Stevens said.

The chief said the ice was only 3 inches thick.

Surcharski fell through and managed to swim to the edge and hold on while he yelled.

Doug Elliott, a service technician with Townsend Oil of Georgetown, was working on a repair at a home on 62 Pine Tree Drive.

He was walking back to his truck to get tools when he heard Surcharski's yells.

"I heard: 'Help! Help!' I went to the back side of the house and looked over to the lake and saw the guy in the water. I called 911," Elliott recalled.

Elliott ran down to the shore, and he was soon joined by on-call Hamilton firefighters Ellison and David Dolan, who were working nearby and went to the scene after hearing the page from their radios.

Ellison works for Welch & Lamson, an oil company in Hamilton, and Dolan works at Hamilton's water treatment plant. They met Elliott at the shore.

Together, they pushed an aluminum boat with Ellison inside onto the pond as far as they could. They even used a plastic pole to push the boat farther out.

Ellison threw a rope to Surcharski, who finally grabbed on. With another piece of rope tied to the boat, Elliott, Dolan, police Sgt. Steven Trepanier, Detective Ken Nagy and a neighbor pulled the boat back to shore.

"My adrenaline was pumping. I wanted to get him out," Elliott said.

Elliott said the dogs were out of the water when he got down to the shore, but he's not sure how they got out.

A police officer at the Manchester Police Department had no comment. Surcharski's father is a retired Manchester police officer.