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Westborough firefighters and members of Fire District 14 rescued Bill Johnston after he fell through the ice in Cedar Swamp Thursday afternoon.
Westborough firefighters and members of Fire District 14 rescued Bill Johnston after he fell through the ice in Cedar Swamp Thursday afternoon.Westborough Fire Department Facebook page/Westborough Fire Department Face

A man looking for his pet falcon that flew away ended up getting stuck in a swamp in Westborough and had to be rescued by firefighters Thursday afternoon.

Bill Johnston, 78, fell through ice in the middle of Cedar Swamp off of Brigham Street and it took two hours for firefighters to reach him, according to a Facebook post by the Westborough Fire Department.

Johnston’s wife, Pauline, said her husband used his iPhone to track the path of his falcon, which is named Fiona. As he tried to reach the bird he had to navigate some difficult terrain, but that didn’t stop him.

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“He doesn’t think of himself as going on 79″ years old, she said.

But then he fell through the ice and got stuck.

“Regretfully he ended up in waist deep cold water,” she said, and “very, very thick mud.”

Johnston’s body temperature began to drop, and his limbs became weak.

“His legs wouldn’t move,” she said in a telephone interview. “It was a horrible experience to go through.”

His phone battery almost dead when he called for help, she said.

“He had 1 percent on his cell phone,” she said.

Johnston was trapped in a swampy area that was thick with brush, branches, and tree stumps, and firefighters had to cut their way through the brush to get to him.

“It was difficult for the rescuers,” she said. “They had chainsaws .... It was quite a job for those very, very brave people. It was a great effort.”

She said her husband was released from the hospital Thursday night. His skin is still red and raw, but otherwise he’s in good spirits.

The next day Johnston returned to the great outdoors to look for Fiona.

“His concern now is locating the bird,” she said.



Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.