Firefighters trekked out onto a frozen pond Friday morning in north Wichita to rescue a swan that had been stuck for a couple of days. Residents near 21st and Amidon called first responders Friday morning about the swan being stranded in the middle of a pond. Firefighters in specialized rescue suits went out onto the ice and pulled along a raft. “Our Rescue team … found that the swan was likely unable to move due to the size of the hole he was in versus the size of his feet,” the Wichita Fire Department said on social media. “Crews reported he wasn’t harmed in the rescue and no fowl language was heard. (Sorry. Had to.)“ Photos show the firefighters wrapped the swan in a blanket and one of them sat in the raft with the swan while the other helped guide the raft back to shore. Another rescuer on shore helped pull in the rope attached to the raft. “No two days are ever the same when you’re a firefighter,” WFD said in the post. “Some days, you just might have to rescue a swan. Calls for animal rescues aren’t uncommon, and this isn’t the first time we have had to go out on a frozen pond to rescue one.” Temperatures most of the morning were in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives. Michael Stavola covers breaking news at The Wichita Eagle. He was a finalist for the prestigious Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2022. He’s also won several national, regional and state awards during his seven-plus years of working at newspapers in Kansas. He finished his MBA at Wichita State University in spring 2020.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
