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Nebraska First Responders Rescue Ice Fisher Who Got Stuck in Water After Dark

An ice fisher fell through thin ice while fishing. As a result, Lincoln Fire and Rescue was called to rescue the man.

The Nebraska officials report that the man was about 30 years from the shoreline. The ice fisher was hanging on to the ice shelf. He was fishing on Holmes Lake.

Two joggers in the area helped save the man’s life when they heard him call for help. It was after dark when the duo were running and happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“We’re coming around by the lake and we see a guy, he starts yelling help, help he’s waving his arms and it’s kind of surreal,” Bryan Olesen told the local news station.

Two Joggers First to Try and Help Ice Fisher

Olsen and his fellow jogger, John Wooten’s immediate reaction was to call 911. However, neither of the men had their phones with them.

Wooten acted fast and ran to Normal Boulevard to flag down a driver on the road. He was able to stop someone and they called 911. The same driver had a rope in the back of his truck. The two joggers thought that they could use the rope to help rescue the fisher.

“We’re trying to throw a rope about five times out to the guy, but we can’t get it to him,” Olesen said. “He was a good 30 to 40 feet out there and we didn’t want to walk out there.”

The joggers remember what happened next.

“He’s getting nervous,” Olesen said. “He’s saying please call my mom. We’re saying you’re going to be okay, hang with us, just keep breathing. We felt just so helpless, because you couldn’t get the rope to him. We couldn’t get out there.”

The fire and rescue team arrived just in time to save the ice fisher. LFR Chief Mueller used his surface ice rescue suit. He attached it to a rescue line to make it out to the man that was in the ice. Then he pulled the man to safety.

The ice fisher was taken to the hospital and he was in stable condition.

Watch the joggers tell their story here.