Icy rescue on Lake St. Clair

Snow and ice cover Lake St. Clair near Surf Club Drive, Jan.19, 2015. (Chris Campbell / CTV Windsor)

Stay off the ice!

That’s the message from a Lakeshore resident after an ice rescue on Lake St. Clair.

“Sherry” tells AM800 News that two people on an ATV went through the ice around 4 p.m. Friday and had to crawl on their stomachs to the Sandbar Waterfront Grill in Puce to climb out since there are no ladders located along the shoreline.

Police, fire, and Essex-Windsor EMS were on scene.

Sherry says a life preserver was thrown to help the pair get to safety.

“It is not safe. You can see water, literally a whole big patch and it’s watery looking and you can see the rope of the life ring and the life buoy there and you’d think people would turn around and say, ‘You know, maybe we shouldn’t be walking on this’ but they’re out there,” she explained.

She says more people were seen walking on the ice Saturday and she fears others will need to be rescued, or there will be a potential fatality.

“You get stuck down there and it’s what... eight feet? You can’t pull yourself out, there’s no ladders to get up and out they had to go all the way to the Sandbar to get out and with hypothermia, if it was at night, they probably wouldn’t have made it,” she said.

She adds ice fishermen test the thickness before they go out, so if there’s no one else on the ice, it’s a warning to stay off.

The extent of injuries, if any, suffered by the pair on the ATV is currently unknown.