Firefighter’s daring rescue of dog from icy metro-east pond caught on video
Capt. Steve Doyle of the Columbia Fire Department is set to celebrate a Valentine’s Day wedding Saturday, but before that he had a big assignment to finish.
Doyle was part of the crew that responded to rescue a dog in an icy pond in Cahokia Heights Friday morning, and he took on the job of swimming about 20 yards to grab the stranded dog.
Doyle and the dog were pulled back to shore by firefighters on the shore and the dog was then taken to the Gateway Pet Guardians in East St. Louis.
The shelter posted a Facebook video of the dog being cared for inside its clinic. Alisha Vianello, the group’s executive director, said the dog has been named “Gill” and is doing OK. He will be on a stray dog hold for a week but can be sent to a foster home immediately if someone is interested in watching him. You can reach the shelter at 618-687-8007.
“Poor thing was trapped and terrified and started freezing,” the group wrote in the post. Doyle said the dog, which appears to be a pit bull, was drained of energy by the time he reached it.
“He’s a hero,” Vianello said of Doyle.
As Doyle was putting on his “ice suit” before entering the lake, he was told the dog “was starting to go under water,” so he skipped the step of “burping” air out of the ice suit.
“I just hurried up and zipped up my suit and they hooked up a rope on me and I took off out there,” he said. “I knew that I didn’t have very much time so I just took off for the dog.”
Doyle, 44, said sometimes a dog can bite a rescuer but this one didn’t put up a fight. And he was thinking if it did bite him, he would have an interesting injury to explain to his fiancée, Jennifer Welker, on their wedding day.
Cahokia Heights Fire Department Chief Stephen Robbins said the Columbia Fire Department was called to assist in the ice rescue at about 11:30 a.m. Friday at the pond off 300 Tricentennial Drive near the Prairies Golf Club. A video of the rescue was posted on the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency’s Facebook page.
Doyle, who said this was his first rescue, said the Columbia Fire Department usually has three or four ice rescues each winter. He praised the department for providing the equipment and training necessary to make the rescues.
And Doyle has a safety message for the public: “Stay off the ice,” he said. He urges people to call the fire department if an ice rescue is needed.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 5:19 PM.
