pTHERESA — Firefighters had to move carefully Tuesday to make a different kind of rescue: Three dogs had fallen through the slushy ice of the fast-moving Indian River./pp“Imagine a 10-feet-deep swimming pool filled with Jell-O, and you try to swim across it, it was like that,” said Theresa Fire Chief Mark S. Savage. “It was almost impossible.”/ppThe dogs, a collie, a golden retriever and a Labrador, were first spotted near County Route 46 around 9 a.m. Tuesday, and Theresa crews called in backup from the Evans Mills and Philadelphia departments./ppThe departments used special winter dive suits, nicknamed Gumby suits, to go after the dogs, which had half their bodies submerged./ppAfter one rescuer grabbed the first two dogs, additional personnel were brought in to get the third dog back to shore./ppThe river’s strong current and the thickness of the water made the rescue difficult, said Philadelphia Fire Chief Christopher P. LaClair./pp“It kept hitting us,” he said. “We’d swim out there, and we’d have to push the ice out the way,” he said. “Anytime you got out of the water, the ice broke and you fell back in. It made everybody exhausted in the recovery.”/ppChief LaClair said the dogs seemed pretty ecstatic to see their rescuers come their way./pp“They were exhausted and cold and they wanted out of there,” he said./ppOnce brought to shore, the dogs were dried off and wrapped in blankets to warm them up./pp“They were very, very tired,” Chief Savage said. “I’m not sure how much longer they could’ve lasted.”/ppThe owner of the labrador and collie were on the scene immediately, Chief LaClair said./ppThe Jefferson County SPCA a href="https://www.facebook.com/212689738822275/photos/a.260214850736430.59818.212689738822275/1022699531154621/?type=3&theater"said the owner of the golden retriever was found/a on Wednesday./ppAttempts to reach the owners of the dogs on Wednesday were unsuccessful./p
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