Rescue effort ends sadly after three deer got stranded on icy reservoir

WALTHAM, Mass. — Three deer got trapped on an icy reservoir Wednesday morning, with a sad ending to an attempted rescue.

SKY25 was over the Cambridge reservoir in Waltham where crews spent hours trying to reach the trio of deer. A crew of four firefighters worked tirelessly to reach the animals, with two of the firemen tethered to a line with a rescue sled.

One of the deer died before crews could even get close, but the firefighters stayed out on the frozen reservoir trying to reach the two that were still struggling.

"Really no luck to get them," said one of the crew members. "The other two deer were scared away by the one that passed away."

During the rescue effort, people driving by stopped to see what was going on causing some traffic delays in the area.

The closest point to the deer was Route 128 South, so crews staged on that side of the highway for a couple hours, backing up traffic for quite some time.

After four hours of trying to reach the deer, the Fire Department called off the rescue around 1:30 p.m.

The Deputy Chief said it was a tough call and not the ending they'd hoped for. But after doing everything they possibly could, they were left with no choice.

"We got as far as we could on the frozen ice, tethered ourselves off to an anchor then just tried to make our way to make a hole to the open water to where the deer were... hopefully they would swim to that point," he said.

In the end though, nature took it's course.

Cox Media Group