Two young Bronx men horsing around on the frozen Central Park Pond fell through thin ice yesterday — and three rescuers who tried to save them also ended up in the drink.
Ayana Nyamaa, 19, and Abdoulatif Ali, 20, told The Post they had no clue there was a body of water beneath the snow as they crossed at around 2 p.m. near the park entrance at Central Park South and Fifth Avenue.
Theyy were “taking pictures” and “goofing around” about 50 yards from the edge of The Pond, several witnesses said.
“One was doing a little dance,” said Phoebe Cutter, 23, a Manhattan graphic designer. “The one who did the dance hopped on one foot, then he hopped on the other foot.
Glenn Halcomb
LUCKY TO LIVE: Ayana Nyamaa (above left), 19, and 20-year-old Abdoulatif Ali were horsing around on The Pond yesterday (above) when the ice gave way. They said they didn’t know they were on the frozen surface of a body of water.
Dana Sauchelli
LUCKY TO LIVE: Ayana Nyamaa, 19, and 20-year-old Abdoulatif Ali were horsing around on The Pond yesterday (above) when the ice gave way. They said they didn’t know they were on the frozen surface of a body of water.
“I was going to leave, but I thought, ‘That’s so dumb. I’d better stay here. They might fall through,’ ” added Cutter, who was first to call 911.
After breaking through the ice, Ali was able to pull himself out of the water in a matter of seconds, but Nyamaa struggled in the 32-degree water for about 15 minutes before he was plucked to safety.
Two park workers and a Central Park Precinct cop also fell through the half-inch sheet of ice as they desperately tried to get Nyamaa out.
“The police officer threw his [rope] to the park employee so he could tie it together — and at that instant, the police officer fell into the water near the edge and my co-worker, who was beside him, fell in,” said park worker Rafael Perez, 36.
Another park worker went to the edge to help, when “everything started crumbling around him, and then he fell into the water, too,” Perez added.
FDNY units arrived in minutes and set up ladders across the thin ice.
Dressed in a dive suit, veteran firefighter Matt Murphy, 34, crawled over the ice with a rescue ring and entered the water behind Nyamaa, sources said.
“The water was over their heads. They could not feel bottom,” said FDNY Lt. Tony Tarabocchia.
Murphy hooked a rescue collar around the victim, and firefighters pulled him out. Other members of the rescue team plucked out the cop and the park workers.
“He was blabbering, he was a little lethargic,” Tarabocchia said of Nyamaa. “He might have been getting hypothermia.”
Nyamaa, Ali and the rescuers were treated and checked for hypothermia at New York Hospital.
The two victims told The Post they had cut through Central Park on their way home to The Bronx after going to a Midtown CVS to apply for work.
“People were on the snow walking. Me and my friend went in and tried to take pictures of the snow — I didn’t know there was water [underneath],” said Nyamaa, a native of Togo who moved to The Bronx last year and attends a GED program at Bronx Regional HS.
“One minute I was fine and then boom — we fell down in the ice at the same time,” he added.
“The fireman saved my life. I thank God for saving my life. I thought I would die.”
Nyamaa is lucky to be alive.
After 15 minutes, a person in such frigid water can lose consciousness, experts said.
Signs around The Pond read “Danger: Thin Ice!” — and police issued both men summonses for “unlawful ice activity.”
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram, Christine Parker and Pedro Oliveira Jr.
pedro.oliveira@nypost.com
