A New Jersey police chief rescued a mother and her young daughter from an icy river on Thursday afternoon by boarding a plastic kayak and “clawing” his way through the ice to reach them.
Elmwood Park Police Chief Mike Foligno told NorthJersey.com that he was dealing with paperwork at his desk when a call came in that “someone saw a body or two” in the Passaic River.
When he arrived at the marina on River Drive, he found the screaming 37-year-old mom and her 2-year-old girl “smack in the middle” of the river.
An attendant from a nearby gas station fetched a plastic kayak and Foligno got inside it on his knees, using a shovel to push himself out, according to the report.
But that didn’t work, so Foligno said he got on his stomach and “just started digging into the ice with my fingers to claw my way out.”
Foligno said he managed to get the mom and “very listless” girl inside the kayak, where the three of them waited for the fire department.
They were pulled to shore by a firefighter in a wetsuit who walked into the icy river with the water “up to his neck.”
“While we were waiting, I lay on top of them to get some body heat, and the child had started to blink. The ambulance said her temperature was in the 80s,” Foligno said.
He said the mom and girl were safe. They were reportedly taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center.
Authorities are investigating how the two of them ended up on the frozen river.
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