Coast Guard rescues woman from ice on Maumee

Washington Township firefighters and members of the Coast Guard work to rescue a woman from the ice on the Maumee River.

THE BLADE/MARK REITER
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Washington Township firefighters and members of the Coast Guard work to rescue a woman from the ice on the Maumee River.

Firefighters pull a woman from a Washington Township fire department boat onto the docks along the Maumee River near Imagination Station after rescuing her from the ice.

Washington Township firefighters today rescued an unidentified woman from the Maumee River in the downtown Toledo area.

The woman was alive, but "clinging to life," Assistant Fire Chief Jim Binieda said.

"She was out there a long time," Mr. Binieda said. "She was pretty much limp by the time we got to her."

No further information on the woman's condition was available. The incident is still under investigation.

Authorities were alerted about 11:30 a.m. after a person in the Grand Plaza Hotel spotted a woman walking on the ice near the Imagination Station, according to reports.

The woman was submerged in the water, clinging to ice, when the township's two hovercrafts reached her, said Mr. Binieda.

The woman was located about 200 yards from the docks near the Imagination Station. The water "currents were pretty swift," he said.

Assisting with the rescue were the Toledo Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard. The Washington Township Fire Department, which owns two hovercrafts, responds to water rescue emergencies in the Toledo area, including Monroe, Michigan.

Toledo fire Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld said "we had two divers on the ice," and said it was Washington Township personnel who reached her in their hovercrafts, pulled her out of the water, and took her to the nearby boat basin. From there she was taken by Life Squad to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. He had no information on her condition or her name or address.