Port Stanley resident Ann Stevens quickly grabbed her camera when she saw something she’d never seen before in the village. There was a man riding a snowmobile on the ice in the harbour. “That certainly ranks up there with one of the silliest things I’ve seen,” said Stevens, who is the eyes and ears in the Lake Erie village when out for her daily walks. The snowmobile operator was just one of dozens of people who walked out onto the lake as the temperatures start to climb above the freezing mark. “You get a day like today [Sunday] where the sun is shining and it’s nice and bright and it’s beating down on that ice, and those ice conditions can change in a matter of hours,” said Chief Jeff Van Rybroeck of Central Elgin Fire Rescue. “It doesn’t take days and weeks to change these conditions.” A drone video taken by local photographer Paul Redman showed how far people have been walking out from main beach in Port Stanley. The footprints go for more than a kilometre. “People are pushing the limits,” said Van Rybroeck. “They’re getting out closer and closer to open water, or they’re getting up on shelf ice or pocketed ice to get that social media picture that they can put out there. It puts themselves in danger, and as a result, it puts our team in danger.” The Elgin County Drowning Prevention Coalition (ECDPC) has been posting to social media about unsafe ice conditions, hoping to get the public to enjoy winter activities safely. “It’s definitely frustrating to see a lot of people who are putting not only themselves at risk, but also potentially putting first responders at risk,” said Briar McCaw, co-founder of the ECDPC. “It’s really important to know that, especially such big bodies of water like Lake Erie, conditions are always unpredictable.” Those conditions are expected to be even more uncertain. “Shelf ice forms in layers, so you might have something that’s thick here, but your next step or next spot, it didn’t freeze solid,” added McCaw. “These ice shelves have gaps in moving water, and they’re not necessarily the strongest structurally. As much as it’s great to go for a walk, you’re now putting firefighters and police services at risk to come and save you. That’s the biggest thing to remember.” Stevens has seen a lot over the years with many tourists and newcomers to the village. She knows the power of Lake Erie and believes others should educate themselves before going near the body of water. “I think because people are hearing that Lake Erie is 90 per cent or 100 per cent frozen, they think it’s safe to go out,” said Stevens. “Even with all the signs that we have out and we have the ice warning signs, people seem to just ignore the signs.” Those signs are located around the beach and over the weekend, OPP were even asking people to stay off the lake. “The safest rescue for us is the one that we can prevent before it happens,” said Van Rybroeck. More photos are available here.
