Firefighters train for ice rescues

Lexington firefighters had the annual ice rescue training Monday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – This time of year, freezing temperatures can ice over ponds and lakes in the area, which police say can be dangerous for people daring to venture onto it. It’s why Lexington firefighters train for icy rescues. According to the Lexington fire department, it takes about two inches of ice to support most people on frozen bodies of water.

“If you live in the northern part of the United States, they get really thick ice and hockey’s big, skating’s big, stuff like that,” says Captain Dustin Whited with Lexington fire. “Here, not so much. We don’t have the winters that they have, even though it’s really cold for us, we don’t have the winters that they have to build that really thick ice to ice fish and to be out on playing.”

Lexington fire says this is the first time this season ice on ponds has been thick enough for officers to do rescue training on.

“Pretty common when we’re doing training, we’ll have some ice rescues because people are out doing the same thing we’re doing, getting on the ice,” says Whited.

The fire department say while it’s tempting to go play on it, the ice isn’t sturdy enough to hold people up and hypothermia can set in in minutes. Though the biggest piece of advice is to stay off frozen ponds and lakes, Lexington fire has some tips if you do end up on thin ice.

“If you’re standing and all your weight is concentrated on your feet, then you’re very likely to go through,” says Whited. “If you get out there and you here the ice cracking or something, try and lay down and disperse your weight and try and crawl across. Get on your stomach and try to pull yourself across.”

With special equipment needed for ice rescues, Lexington fire says it’s important to do training like this whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“We train in the elements, all the time because things don’t quit burning, people don’t quit getting sick, there’s car wrecks don’t stop, and stuff like this doesn’t stop just because the weather comes in,” says Whited.

***EDITED to reflect Lexington Fire Department, not Lexington Police Department.***