Members of the York Regional Police Rescue Unit risked their lives in frigid waters Friday to save a man who fell through ice trying to rescue his dog.
CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry spoke to the two officers who pulled resident James Mabee from the nearly freezing waters of a Milne Park pond, just east of McCowan Road and Highway 7 in Markham.
When Const. Mike Mulville and Const. Warren Fo Sing arrived at the pond, they were expecting a dog on the ice. Instead, they found both the dog and its owner in serious danger.
"The reality was we rolled on the scene, we saw the dog on the water, however, James was also right in the middle of the water," said Mulville.
The officers acted quickly, knowing that a split-second decision meant life or death.
"We went out and threw him our equipment and instead of coming to us as directed, he immediately turned around and went to his dog," said Mullville.
Mabee said all he could think about was saving Rocky, his 11-year-old German Shepherd-Labrador Retriever mix. "For some reason, I felt like I still needed to get the dog. I didn't know if it was going to be 30 seconds, a minute, five minutes."
Spreading himself apart on the ice, Fo Sing approached Mabee while Mulville assisted from behind him.
Reality set in for Mabee when the ice around him started to break. Soon he was in the ice-cold water.
"I couldn't feel my hands anymore, they were completely useless, so I just tried to claw my way back on up," he said.
Moments later, Fo Sing pulled Mabee to safety and a rescue team from the Markham fire department saved the pet.
It wasn't until the officers and Mabee went home and saw the aerial footage that they realized how far apart they really were on the treacherous ice.
"I showed the footage to my dad yesterday and he was pretty proud to see my doing the job I love to do and the job I signed up to do," said Fo Sing.
Both Mabee and Rocky escaped the ordeal with little more than cuts and bruises.
