Neighbors help man who fell through ice

GRATTAN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Firefighters saved a man about 15 minutes after he fell through ice Tuesday afternoon. The Grattan Township fire chief told 24 Hour News 8 the man likely would have died if a neighbor hadn't seen what happened and gotten help so quickly.  
 
Ed Hawks was walking his dog Abby near Big Crooked Lake on New Year's Day, a walk they had taken many times before.  

Hawks said he saw his neighbor suiting up to try out a new ice sailboat on the lake.  

"He was getting ready to go out and we were talking about the ice conditions and I was a little concerned about them," said Hawks.  He said he suggested his neighbor go back home and grab a life jacket, but the neighbor declined, and struck out on the ice.  

"He didn't get too far -- he basically broke through as soon as he got about 100 feet out, and that was it. It was about 100 feet out and that was it. The whole thing went down."  
 
Hawks said that at first, he wasn't sure what he should do. He didn't have his cell phone with him to call for help, but he had to do something.
 
"I was kind of freaking out and the only thing I could think of doing was going to grab his extension ladder, hoping that somebody else would see what happened," said Hawks. "The ice was just too bad and he just kept busting through."  

He told 24 Hour News 8 the man in the water kept telling him to go get a rope from his home, but Hawks couldn't find one. He said he was willing to try anything, and even tried to use a blanket as a rope.  
 
Some other neighbors heard Hawks' dog Abby barking, saw what Hawks was trying to do, called 911and helped Hawks pull the man partially out of the water with a garden hose.  
 
"He'd been in the water for about 15 minutes. Last five minutes, he didn't have much of a will to live and we were really having to coach him into hanging in there," said Hawks. " He just kept telling us, 'I can't hang on anymore.' I kept telling him to kick his legs. He's like, 'I don't feel my legs.' All that stuff it was pretty scary."
 
The fire department was quickly able to pull the man out of the water.

Chief Lou Kirkbride told 24 Hour News 8 the man was lucky Grattan Township has done many ice rescues, and had a special sled that was able to help get him safely to shore.  

"He can be very thankful that Grattan Township's got the equipment they got," said Kirkbride. "Otherwise it could have been a different story."
 
Kirkbride said the man was taken to the hospital, and though hypothermia had already likely set in, without the help the man got from his neighbors, it could have been much worse.
 
"He probably wouldn't have made it, truly," said Kirkbride.

Kirkbride said the ice is just too thin to trust right now.  He said people should wait until it gets to three or four inches thick before trusting it.  

At least one other person fell through the ice on New Year's Day. In Ovid Township in Branch County, a 31-year-old man was pulled from the waters of Rose Lake after falling through the ice. Nearby residents used a life preserver and marine rope to pull the man out of the water. He also was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and is expected to fully recover.

--

Online:

Ice safety tips from the DNR