(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Walking on Thin Ice

P.A. Fire Department advises public to stay off the river ice

Nov 27, 2020 | 11:44 AM

The Prince Albert Fire Department are reminding the public to stay off the river ice following a rescue on the North Saskatchewan River last weekend.

On Sunday firefighters and police were dispatched to a call of a man who jumped off a train bridge into the water.

The man climbed on top of an ice chunk and waited for help. They brought the man onto the boat and took him to shore where he was taken into care by Parkland Ambulance.

Deputy Chief with the P.A. Fire Department Alex Paul said they recommend not to be on the river this time of year or ideally anytime during the winter when there’s ice.

“There’s no way for the average person to know the ice thickness because the current is constantly moving,” Paul said. “You’re going to have places in the river where the ice may be a foot thick and you could have other places where the ice may only be two or three inches thick. Unless you go out there and drill multiple test holes and measure the depth of the ice to confirm that the area that you’re going to be in is safe, our recommendation is to just stay off of it.”

CAMP KADESH

'This was a safe place': concerns grow over summer camp's anti-2SLGBTQ+ beliefs

42m ago

Basketball

Prince Albert high schools secure spots at HOOPLA

2h ago

Driving high

Cannabis use caused 50% of young drivers to crash in simulation: researcher

4h ago

He added river rescues are challenging this time of year when it is beginning to freeze because during the most recent rescue there were portions of the river that were still open. They can’t put a motorized boat in when there’s sections of solid ice, which is why they used the oceanic rescue boat which is an inflatable raft built specifically for ice and water rescue. Using a motorless boat caused them issues because the current was pushing them downstream.

Paul explained you may see firefighters out there doing training and people from Environment Canada who do testing.

The public might quite often see workers out on the ice he said, and they may be drilling a series of test holes right from the north shore to the south shore.

“Part of that is to test ice thickness, but primarily why they’re drilling their holes is to take samples of the larva in there,” he said. “So there’s legitimate reasons why there’s workers out there and that doesn’t necessarily give the public the green light to say that it’s safe and for them to be out there because the workers that are out there, they’re wearing immersion suits, they’re tethered off, they’ve taken all the appropriate precautions to make sure they’re safe should they break through.”

–

Ian,gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12