Teens form human chain to rescue children who sled into icy pond

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — Five teen boys formed a human chain Thursday to rescue an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother who lost control of their speeding sled and launched into an icy pond.

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As snow filled the ground, Olivia Heid and her brother RJ were excited to grab their sled and try it out for the first time, WCBS reported.

The siblings were with their parents sledding at Beacon Hill Country Club when they lost control of the sled.

“You could see in their faces that they knew something bad was about to happen,” mother Stephanie Irlbeck told WCBS.

The sled flew over a ridge and landed in an icy pond, WABC reported.

“It was like freezing,” Olivia Heid said. “Our faces were in shock. RJ was like, really cold.”

Five teens were nearby.

“Me and Joey first saw them. I think we’re both thinking, should we like jump in front of the raft to try to stop it?” Drew Scalice said. “We couldn’t. It was going way too fast.”

But, the teens did not think twice about helping.

Kiernan Foley, 14, jumped into the water and first fished out RJ, then Olivia. He handed the children to his four friends who had formed a human chain.

“We definitely had to do something. We can’t just sit there and watch,” Foley said.

While they have been hailed as heroes, they feel they did what anyone would have.

“We hope that anybody would do that. It just happened to be us there,” Tyler Armagan said.

The family is full of praise for the teens.

“What they did was, like, just amazing,” father Richard Heid said. “It was awesome to see little kids do that.”

Irlbeck said: “Adults wouldn’t do things like that, you know?”

Cox Media Group