SHREWSBURY — An emergency training exercise on a lake turned into a real-life rescue Tuesday when a snowmobiler broke through the ice with his vehicle.
While members of the Shrewsbury Fire Department were conducting emergency training exercises Tuesday afternoon at Jordan Pond, someone attempted to ride his Polaris 700 XC snowmobile on the pond, according to Fire Capt. Sean Lawlor. The ice was noticeably thin and the 500-plus-pound snowmobile broke through the frozen surface.
The Fire Department was there with a hovercraft, a departmental rescue apparatus that glides over the ice without breaking it, Lawlor said.
The Fire Department purchased the hovercraft several years ago thanks to a $40,000 donation by local philanthropist Barbara H. Donahue, replacing the one she helped acquire 15 years earlier.
“We had the hovercraft on the ice with two gentlemen in rescue suits ready to go,” Lawlor said. “And then, one of my firefighters said, ‘Oh, look at this guy.’ And as we turned around, there’s a gentleman driving onto the ice and then he disappeared.”