At Dick Bell Park along the Ottawa River, open water appears to meet solid ice, but residents like Dahlia El-Hawari know better. “I would not let my kids near here,” she says. “I wouldn’t go anywhere near this ice in the winter. It’s just not safe.” On Thursday, the Ottawa Police Service’s Marine, Dive and Trails Unit was out on the ice to remind the public that all ice has risks. “The message is always going to be the same. No ice is safe ice,” says Const. Matthiew Methot. “At the end of the day, you have no idea what those states of the ice are and we don’t want people going out there trying to be the judge for themselves.” Methot says emergency services are dispatched to help people who have fallen through the ice every winter. “Year after year, there are always calls and we never want to have to be called out to do any type of recoveries,” he says. Officers went out on the ice to demonstrate its dangers and explain some of the warning signs to look for. “Your blue ice is going to be the strongest ice. That’s followed by a kind of white ice and then grey ice, which becomes more dangerous,” Methot says. “Also, as we get more snow in the city that will start covering the ice, which can also be dangerous because it acts as an insulator and can make the ice more brittle.” The police constable also emphasized the importance of the “1-10-1 principle.” As Methot explains it, once someone falls in the face, it takes the body a minute to acclimate to the cold water. “It’s the same effect on everybody. You can’t breathe. All the blood in your body is going to go to those really high functioning organs. Your hands, your arms, your legs all your extremities will become numb, making it increasingly difficult over time to try to save yourself and get out of the water,” Methot says. According to Methot, after the first minute, people who have fallen through the ice have an approximately ten-minute window where they’ll be able to move, and once they’ve left the water, they will need to spend one hour warming back up. “You have about ten minutes of meaningful movement, and to attempt to try and get your body out of the water. And then after that, you have about an hour of rewarming that needs to happen to avoid further effects of hypothermia,” Methot said. Const. Robert McConnechie says survivors need to remain calm and act quickly. “You feel that initial shock of when you’re plunging into the cold water. It’s important to take that time just to be aware of that cold immersion shock response that your body’s going to get,” McConnechie says. “Get your body flat in the water. Kick hard. Try to get up onto that ice shelf while keeping your body splayed out and move in the direction where you came into that one area.” Once you’ve left the water and are on the ice, McConnechie says to move away from the zone where you entered the water. “Roll away from where you went into the water and move away from that area, keeping your body flat on the ice to spread your weight,” he said. “You have to keep fighting. It’s all you have. And, just know that you do have the time. It’s painful, but your body can last quite a while in these conditions. So, just fight through that pain in the panic.” Methot warns that ice conditions are particularly dangerous in the region. “In Ottawa, we have a lot of fast-moving water. The Rideau River and the Ottawa River, there’s always strong currents, and anywhere where there’s current, there’s a lot of weak ice,” he says. “There’s just not enough ice. There’s other ponds, stormwater management ponds that are in the city and it’s not thick enough for people to go out there.” The Ontario Life-Saving Society notes that 35 per cent of drownings happen between October and April, and the majority are snowmobile related, a reminder that no ice is without risk. “Going out on unknown and thin ice, that’s what creates these emergencies,” says Methot. “Just stay off the ice.”
