CHELAN COUNTY, Wash. — King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) deputies and Mercer Island Police Department (MPD) officers saved a man who fell through the ice on Fish Lake northwest of Leavenworth on Tuesday.
The law enforcement officers were finishing their annual ice rescue training when one of them noticed a man ice fishing who had fallen through the ice.
“Everyone just jumped right into action and kind of utilized all the skills that we just practiced,” Erik Pierson said, a deputy on the King County Sheriff’s Office Marine Rescue Unit team.
One KCSO deputy and an MPD officer crawled on the ice to the man, who was more than 150 feet from shore.
Pierson says he and his fishing partner were walking back when he fell through. Pierson helped tie a rope under the man’s arms, clipping him to a floatation sled where the other officers pulled him to shore.
He estimates the man was out of the water and in the cabin the first responder brought for heating in less than ten minutes.
“If it took a little bit longer or anything like that, that could have really been bad,” Pierson said.
“It could have been potentially fatal. Not just for him, but maybe even his buddies who were trying to rescue him, should that have occurred, it was just really perfect that we were there right at the right time,” he continued.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources says ice should be at least four inches thick for walking on or ice fishing. Pierson says that while the ice was technically thick enough, it was noticeably weak and cracking under his weight.
KCSO has held training sessions at the lake for several years, but this year the warm weather has made conditions more dangerous.
“In the years past, we’ve had some pretty awesome ice out there, real thick, and if anything, we’ve had issues trying to cut into the ice to create a whole diving because it was so thick.
That was not the case this year.” Pierson said. “It was kind of this frazzled ice that if you put a little bit of weight on it, you start to feel yourself sink.”