NEW ROCHELLE, NY — New Rochelle Police rescued a man in his fifties who fell through the ice on Monday evening off the shore of Five Islands Park in New Rochelle.
“He was in the water for about ten minutes,” said New Rochelle Police Sergeant Christopher Castiglia. “He was taken to Montefiore Hospital (New Rochelle) and treated for hypothermia.”
Police did not have an update on the man’s medical condition.
“He is lucky somebody heard him,” said Castiglia. “Nobody’s out there walking around. He could have died.”
Police learned the man was in trouble at 4:44 p.m. when a civilian in the park notified New Rochelle Police Lieutenant Robert Wentzler he could hear someone screaming from across the water. By the time the police got there, the man had extricated himself from the frigid water. He was taken from the scene in an NRPD patrol car then transferred to an Empress ambulance which had been dispatched to the scene.
The man was found near the parking lot at Five Islands Park.
Police said the man, unaware how thin the ice was, had attempted to walk across the ice covering Echo Bay from Five Islands Park to Hudson Park. The ice broke beneath his feet.
The air temperature at the time was about 28 degrees Fahrenheit.
UPDATE 1/9/18: New Rochelle Police Sergeant Deniz provided further clarification on the incident. She said when police arrived on the scene the man was still in the water, clinging to a dock. She named four police officers involved in pulling the man out of the water: Sergeant Labarbera, P.O. Wallach, P.O. Cordaro, P.O. Weinerman.
The ambulance was unable to cross the bridges connecting the outer islands of the park. The man was moved from the dock, across the bridges, by police to the ambulance waiting on the other side of the bridges.