When firefighter Jonathan Maggio first saw the swan trapped on the frozen Connecticut River, completely still with its head buried in its wings, he decided they were too late to save it.

It was not clear how long the creature had been therebut he hadn’t moved in a long time. Onlookers and reporters gathered at the river’s edge in Norwalk, Conn., believed he was dead.

Still, Maggio said, they had to try.

“We didn’t want to leave him there one way or the other,” said Maggio, Norwalk’s deputy fire chief. As it happens host Nil Köksal. “We certainly wanted to give him the best chance in case he was alive.”

After the rescuers landed on the ice, Maggio says, the swan lifted its head and its hope soared.

“That changed everything,” Maggio said. “People started clapping.”

‘Show him some love’

It was early last Thursday when Maggio got word from dispatchers that several concerned citizens had reported that a swan had been stuck in the ice on the Norwalk River for several days.

Maggio says he has been involved in more than a few animal rescues over the years of his service and has helped save more than one person from icy waters.

“But this was a first for the swan,” he said.

The male swan was under the bridge in a section of water that was raised from the tidal river. Maggio believes he swam there seeking shelter from the rainy winter weather, only to have the water freeze around his feet.

It took 30 minutes for 23 people from the fire department and a local wildlife rescue agency to rescue him. They used ropes, ladders and wetsuits to reach the creature, which raised its wings nervously as they approached.

“I said, ‘Show him some love,’ you know, let him know we’re here to help,” Maggio said. “I’m telling you, in less than 10 seconds, I think it understood that we were here to help.”

Rescuers wrapped blankets around the swan, which remained calm as they slowly chipped away the ice around its body.

After he was freed from his icy prison, he was lifted to safety in a basket, placed in an ambulance and transferred to the local VCA Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center.

Since then, the bird has been nicknamed Clancey, Maggio said.

Clancey expected him to make a full recovery

VCA spokesman Noah Thomas said Clancey arrived at the hospital on a gurney “dazed” and dehydrated.

The staff gently melted the ice blocks stuck to his skin and feathers as they warmed his body and gave him some fluids.

“Within an hour he became visibly clearer and began to recover,” Noah told the CBC in an email.

Clancey is now recovering at Norwalk Veterinary Hospital, whbefore he is expected to fully recover.

Maggio says he’s been in the rescue business for 30 years and doesn’t end every call this well. But when the swan was finally safe and loaded into an ambulance, he says everyone on the team was beaming with pride.

“This one will go down in my career history for sure,” Maggio said. “It was very good.”