Lincoln Fire Rescue pulls moose from frozen lake

Lincoln Volunteer Fire Rescue members worked to save a cow moose that had fallen though thin ice on Krohn Lake, east of Lander's Fork Road Thursday, Jan. 23.

Lincoln Assistant Fire Chief Derek Perez said the moose was spotted in the lake at about 9:30 a.m. The fire department received the page at 10:30 a.m. and arrived on the lake by11 a.m.

Firefighters initially planned to cut a trench in the ice to the shore, according to Perez, but the moose swam toward them and tried to climb out. That prompted firefighter Billy Cyr to take the straightforward step of using a rope to get her out. After getting a rope around her neck he tried to get the rope around her leg, but she was thrashing too much. With the help of the firefighters, she was able to get her front half out of the water. Firefighters then got ropes around her front legs and pulled her the rest of the way out and away from the edge of the opening. Using Cyr's experience with horses, they rubbed her legs and back to stimulate blood flow. Although they had the moose out of the water within 10 minutes of their arrival, she had been in the water for more than two hours, possibly much longer. Despite the firefighters efforts, which included an attempt to resuscitate her with an improvised form of CPR, the animal finally succumbed to the cold and exhaustion.

"Unfortunately, the moose had been in there too long. We don't know how long. At least two-and-a-half hours. Before that, she could have been in there all night; we don't know," said Fire Chief Zach Muse, who coordinated the effort, but was unable to respond due to his job as Lincoln's postmaster.

"It's just sad. You do what you can and hope, but she took too much water on," he said. Nevertheless, he said it was an all-around good team effort by the Fire Department.

"It's just a matter of getting the right people to the right spot," Muse said. "It was just kind of lining people out, getting people there, making sure we had the muscle because we weren't sure we were able to get down to it. Everybody responded really quick."

Muse said firefighter David 'Tater' Davis drove the rescue truck to the lake because it was equipped with all the necessary ropes and pulleys, as well as the water rescue gear. The LVFR has six members certified in water rescue, although beyond keeping the firefighters out of danger on the ice they didn't have to put rely on that training in this instance.

The Lincoln Ranger District also lent a hand, sending two employees, one of whom used a Forest Service snowmobile to pull the dead moose off the lake.

The rescue attempt was highlighted by Great Falls, Helena and Missoula news outlets.

Muse said the incident serves as a reminder for people recreating in the area to take extra caution around bodies of water, since the recent cycle of freezing and thawing has made ice thickness unpredictable.

The moose was actually the second call of the day for the LVFD last Thursday. At about 5 :30 a.m. they responded to a report of a chimney fire at a home in Lincoln. Within a couple hours the firefighters had the small blaze out, with minimal damage to the home.t