John J. Sedarowicz, 46, maintenance worker, died attempting to save Joseph Ferrigno, 9, from drowning, Brooklyn, New York, February 5, 1959. While playing on an ice-covered pond, Joseph broke through into water 35 feet deep 75 feet from the nearest bank. Sedarowicz, who was working several hundred feet away, hailed a passing automobile and sent the driver for help. As the man drove away he saw Sedarowicz running toward the pond. A few minutes later other men, including Frederick H. Metzger, reached the scene. Metzger removed his jacket and shoes, got to a prone position on the ice, and crawled to within two feet of the hole as the ice cracked under him but did not break. He took hold of Joseph, who was inert, and started to pull him from the hole. The ice then broke under Metzger; and he plunged into the water, enlarging the hole to six feet. Metzger lost his hold on Joseph and came up under thin ice near the edge of the hole but broke through it with his head. He regained his hold on Joseph and supported him while the men on the bank tied 150 feet of rope to the end of a five foot ladder. One of the men then crawled onto the ice and toward the hole, sliding the ladder ahead of him. Metzger’s hands became so numb that he lost his hold on Joseph but regained it briefly. Joseph then slipped from his grasp and sank. Stopping 20 feet from the hole, the man with the ladder slid it to within Metzger’s reach. Unable to grasp the ladder with his numbed hands, Metzger wrapped his arms around it. The men on the bank then drew both men to shore by the rope. A coat which Sedarowicz had been wearing was found at the edge of the pond. Police and firemen recovered the bodies of Joseph and Sedarowicz, who had broken through the ice 35 feet from shore. 44660-4306
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