A deer was successfully plucked from Westwood Lake on Tuesday afternoon after falling into the water and stuck in a thin sheet of ice. (submitted photo/Alison Glencross)

By Alex Rawnsley

WATER RESCUE

VIDEO: Nanaimo firefighters rescue young deer from icy Westwood Lake waters

Jan 25, 2022 | 5:05 PM

NANAIMO — There were a few challenging moments, but it was a happy ending for a young deer at Westwood Lake.

Nanaimo Fire Rescue crews were called to the lake just after 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 25 after an onlooker reported a deer in the ice-covered water near the Bluff on the south eastern side of the lake.

Stu Kenning, assistant fire chief, told NanaimoNewsNOW they tried to create a path in the ice to get the deer back to safety.

“We launched our rescue boat, we tried to do some ice breaking to get the deer back to shore but the deer did not want to go to shore so the guys fished the deer out of the water and brought her back to the boat launch.”

It was there two officers from the BC Conservative Officer Service took over, wrapping the deer in a towel on the beach and warmed it up before taking it back into the trees.

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“The deer eventually got up, walked away and lived a happy little deer life,” Kenning added.

The rescue was a challenging one and different from the norm, with officers keen to have as little direct interaction with the animal as possible.

Kenning said they don’t train for deer-specific rescues but borrowed a lot of lessons from countless hours of water rescue training.

“It’s a little different with a wild animal, we just take a few different precautions and we tried to guide the animal to shore first with as little contact as possible.”

Eight Nanaimo Fire Rescue officers were on scene along with the two Conservation Officers.

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alex@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley