PRINCETON, Mass. --
An off-duty firefighter risked his life to save a skier stranded on a frozen pond at the Wachusett Mountain ski resort over the weekend, and both survived to tell the tale.
Homevideo captured the tense scene at the mountain Saturday.
A mentally-disabled skier somehow ended up on a 20-foot-deep snow-making pond at about noon and was trapped on thin ice.
A ski instructor witnessed the incident and videotaped it.
"He had skied down one of the trails and -- we're guessing pretty fast -- because he really went pretty far and just skied straight across the pond," Laurie Holloway said.
An off-duty Worcester firefighter, Rob Binette, was skiing with his family and witnessed the incident while he was taking a lunch break.
He also happens to be an ice-rescue specialist on the department's scuba team.
"I ran over to the bar tender. I said, 'Call ski patrol. Tell them they have somebody in the middle of the lake,'" Binette said.
Binette then jumped into action, making a harness out of rope and then gingerly making his way out to the stranded skier, where he was able to get him safely back to shore.
"His legs were all tangled so I straightened his legs out. I remember kicking his skis off and then the ski patrol assisted in pulling me in," Binette said.
The skier was just fine and got back to land to the cheers of bystanders.
"He was screaming out because the rope does pinch you as you're being pulled in. Small price to pay for safety, to be honest with you," Binette said.
Binette is not only an ice rescue specialist but also an ice rescue instructor. He said he'll use the weekend experience to train other firefighters.
"I was in the right place at the right time. I was happy to help out," he said.
Copyright 2008 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
