Local News

A man got stuck in a Westborough swamp while searching for his falcon. First responders pulled off a difficult rescue.

"Oh my God, it was cold."

January 10, 2020

1 minute to read

William Johnston Jr. used the remaining one percent of battery left on his cellphone to call 911.

He’d been stuck in the mud for over two hours Thursday afternoon, in a swamp while searching for his missing falcon, Boston 25 News reports.

The bird went out of sight as Johnston, the owner of a falconry business who is in his 70s, was hunting for ducks in the cold.

“I pulled myself out of the water and the mud and I started to shake a little and started to suffer hypothermia,” he told the news station. “I had one percent left on my phone so I used that to call 911.”

First responders found him off Flanders Road, uninjured but cold, after navigating a challenging rescue operation, Westborough Deputy Fire Chief Jason Ferschke told the news outlet.

The crew was wearing cold-weather survival suits and cutting down brush at the same time, which Ferschke said is difficult to do.

“That type of environment isn’t easy to get through on a normal day but putting yourself in a suit really hampers any movement,” Ferschke told Boston 25 News.

“These guys saved my life,” says 78-year-old Bill Johnston from his hospital bed. He’s being treated for hypothermia after falling through ice in Westboro while chasing his pet falcon. Took firefighters 2 hours to rescue him #WCVB pic.twitter.com/Zqns7OtJb6

— John Atwater (@AtwaterWCVB) January 10, 2020

Once they reached Johnston, the firefighters carried him and then put him on an ATV, which brought him to an ambulance, according to the news station.

“It was an inch of ice, you couldn’t stand on it,” Chris DuBois, of the fire department, said. “You had to push your way through the under bush […] and once we found him, we had to make sure we kept him above water.”

Johnston said the rescue crew was “fantastic.”

“I just can’t say enough good things about the Westborough rescue team, the EMTs,” he said. “They really worked hard to get me out of there. They bushwhacked in with a chainsaw, and the guys were wearing the suits that they do for water rescue and oh my God, it was cold. I was shivering and they were sweating just getting me out of there, which they did.”

Johnston was released from the hospital and recovering at home Thursday night, he told the news outlet. He plans to find the missing falcon using a GPS tracker.