MUSKEGO, Wis. — A Muskego woman battling breast cancer has finally reunited with the firefighter who waded through raging floodwaters to rescue her three weeks ago. She asked TMJ4 reporter Rebecca Klopf for help finding her rescues and all she had to go on was a blurry picture she took the night of the floods.
Alice Worske was trapped in her home when floodwaters surrounded her property. She woke to find her bed surrounded by water and her escape routes cut off by raging flood waters.
"It was hard to even open the door to get out," Worske said. "I think about it sometimes and I still shake."
The Tess Corners Fire Department answered the call for help. Lt. Trevor Pickart first tried to get the fire truck to Alice but they couldn't make it all the way down the road as the water was too high. Undeterred, he first attempted to reach her in his full firefighting gear.
"I almost got pulled under," Pickart said.
Determined to get to Alice and her dog, Sasha,, Pickart made a critical decision.
Watch: Muskego woman reunites with firefighter who rescued her during devastating floods
"I told our Assistant Chief that I need to get out of my gear. So put a life jacket on, stuck my radio in the life jacket," Pickart said. "In the picture you saw, I had a t-shirt, shorts, I didn't even have boots. I just had my socks on when I walked back down."
With only socks on his feet, Pickart trudged through raging waters for the length of two football fields to reach Alice.
When TMJ4 brought them back together, the emotion was overwhelming.
"Thank you, thank you so much. I will never forget your face. That was wonderful," Alice told Pickart during their reunion.
But the rescue effort didn't end there. When the fire department's boat proved too large for the rescue operation, Pickart's had another idea, his dad lived nearby.
"My dad has a boat that we were able to grab. Just a little 14 foot Jon boat. Grabbed that out of the yard at 3 o'clock in the morning," Pickart said.
A crew of five rescuers from the Tess Corners Fire Department including AJ Abramczyk, Tim Gorecki, Scott Salentine and Mike Wojnowski, eventually reached Worske and her dog Sasha, getting them safely into the boat and away from danger.
"For you guys to save everybody's life upon your own. That is just incredible," Worske said.
Worske is still trying to determine if her house can be salvaged. A GoFundMe available here has been established to help with her recovery efforts.
This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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