A New Jersey firefighter died Thursday after falling into icy water at a marina along the Delaware River.
The veteran Camden firefighter, a man in his 60s, was doing regular maintenance on a department boat around 11:30 a.m. when he fell into the frigid waters at the Wiggins Park Marina in Camden, city officials said.
He became trapped under the ice and remained there for about 30 minutes, Camden Fire Department Chief Jesse Flax said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The firefighter was pulled from the river through a joint effort by department personnel at the scene and firefighters from neighboring Philadelphia. He was then taken to Cooper University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“This is a very difficult time for all of us,” Flax said. “I do not have enough words that I could even say that could tell you how this is hurting all of us.”
While the department said it will withhold the victim’s name until his entire family is properly notified, Flax described him as a “dedicated firefighter who understood his job very well.”
“He wasn’t just a public servant,” said Camden Mayor Victor G. Carstarphen. “He was a husband, a brother, a father, who committed his adult life to serving and protecting and being there for our residents in the city.”
