ORWIGSBURG, Pa. — A tragedy is hitting home in the Orwigsburg area after two young boys fell into an icy pond on Wednesday. A five-year-old boy did not survive.
Troopers say the two boys were playing on a property on Molino Road in West Brunswick Township, near Orwigsburg, Wednesday night, when the dog's barking got their mother's attention.
"When she came outside, she saw her four year old floating on the top of the pond," said Trooper David Beohm. "This is a horrific incident for everybody that's involved -- the parents, for first responders."
Beohm says the mother was able to grab that child immediately as neighbors came to help.
But, the five-year-old boy was not seen.
The Schuylkill Haven Dive Team came and soon found him under the water.
"Once the dive team got there, it didn't take them long at all to find him," Tpr. Beohm said.
State police don't know how much time passed from the call to finding the boy, but the child died at the hospital.
Neighbor Bob Brugger says he often walks by the pond.
"That pond wasn't, I don't think it was real deep, so it must have been where they were."
The day after the incident, one side of the pond appears to be frozen, but on the other side, less than halfway down, water can be seen streaming through.
As a neighbor, Brugger says he knows the family and has seen the boys playing outside many times.
"I can imagine what they went through. It's devastating," Brugger said.
The four-year-old boy is being cared for at a children's hospital in Delaware.
"We may have to talk to some other people," Tpr. Beohm said. "This is just a horrible, horrible accidental death, is what it's going to come down to."
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