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Ann Arbor Township Fire Captain Lewis Kempf with the deer he rescued Wed., Dec. 25, on a frozen section of the Huron River in the upper Dixboro Dam by Dixboro Road.

(Courtesy of Lewis Kempf)

An exhausted, injured deer stranded on a frozen section of the Huron River in Ann Arbor Township got a little help from three firefighters on Christmas Day.

The deer, sitting in the middle of the ice in the upper part of the Dixboro Dam by Dixboro Road, couldn’t muster the strength to stand after slipping on the ice repeatedly.

A small crowd of people had gathered about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on the shore to watch the deer.

Ann Arbor Township Fire Captain Lewis Kempf had stopped at the fire station to pick up the ham for his Christmas dinner that morning when the skeleton holiday crew was dispatched to the river—and so Kempf joined them for the hour-long operation.

“We watched it for a while and could see it didn’t have any energy to get up,” Kempf said.

Wearing a cold-weather wetsuit and attached to a rope, Kempf walked out on the ice with a trash pole towards the animal.

On the shore, Lt. Ed Mantay and Capt. Doug Eder waited as backup. In that portion of the river, the water is about six to eight feet deep.

The deer was nervous and agitated when Kempf approached, but Kempf was able to push the deer off the ice to the shoreline using the pole.

There, it rested on the ground before attempting to stand. Kempf said he believes the deer may have been hit by a car because of a flesh injury on its right hip.

Firefighters rescued the deer as a precautionary measure to ensure that the operation was done by professionals with the equipment and knowledge to get the job done safely, Kempf said.

“There were quite a few people standing out there,” Kempf said. “Someone would want to try to venture out and be a good Samaritan.”

Amy Biolchini is the K-12 education reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at amybiolchini@mlive.com, (734) 623-2552 or on Twitter.