WEYMOUTH, Mass. -- Weymouth officials are warning residents against walking or skating on ponds after a local man had to be rescued when he fell through some ice early Sunday.

The dramatic rescue was caught on video as rescuers tried to pull the panicked 27-year-old from the frigid waters of Whitman's Pond, where he had been walking about 2 a.m. Sunday.

Neighbors along Lakeshore Drive awoke to hear Jason Dubois screaming for help as he struggled to keep afloat in the freezing water.

"It was very disturbing. He was saying, 'I'm going down. Don't let me die.' It was really scary," John Volta said.

The young man had been walking home when he fell through thin ice.

"I just grabbed the canoe and went off like on a skateboard out to him and then the ice started to crack, so I just pushed it as far as I could and then the fireman came up beside me," Volta said.

Rescuers said they started at a disadvantage. The fire station a half-mile away was closed because of budget constraints.

"The ice boat out of station (No.) 3 was donated from a mother of a son who drowned in that pond. It's named after her. And that boat never left the barn," Weymouth Fire Capt. Mike Crowley said.

Instead, firefighters struggled with a tipping canoe. The victim was desperate and by the time he was pulled on board he had been in the water close to 30 minutes.

"It put the safety of us and the citizens of Weymouth in jeopardy, because of the lack of manpower," Crowley said.

The victim was alert when he was taken to South Shore Hospital and was expected to be OK.

Town officials said they had to warn people off the ice on the same pond a few hours after the rescue.