A brother, sister and dog narrowly avoided a tragic outcome after falling through the ice at Beaver Lake on Jan 14.
The dog had run out on the ice and had fallen through, which had prompted the woman to try and save it, said Rob Jones, assistant deputy chief of operations at the Saanich Fire Department. The brother then attempted to rescue both his sister and the dog, but also fell through.
Luckily for the pair and their dog, bystanders were near where they had fallen through and managed to pull them from the icy water. They were hypothermic by the time the fire department arrived on the scene.
“They were being attended to by bystanders on the shores. We just provided a hypothermia response where we put blankets around them and kept them warm until the ambulance showed up,” Jones said.
Both brother and sister were taken to the hospital for further medical assistance, according to Jones.
Frozen lakes, especially deep-water lakes, are hazardous, said Jones, and fire departments do not recommend going on the ice. If people do choose to go out on frozen water, he instead recommends something like the Panama Fla, which is only one or two feet deep.
“When you’re on deep water, there’s no real way of helping yourself if you get in, it’s very hard to get out. So we don’t recommend it at all.”
READ MORE: Teen pulls self to safety after falling through ice on Cumberland lake
Elsewhere on the Island on Sunday, a teenager had to be rescued after falling through the ice on a lake near Cumberland. The teenager fell into five feet of water, near the shore at Maple Lake.
Deputy fire chief Stephane Dionne was called to the scene and found the teenager had crawled out of the lake when he arrived.