By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Lethbridge Fire and EMS practice ice rescue techniques

Feb 22, 2017 | 1:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE – “It only takes a second, and you fall through.” That’s why Lethbridge Fire and EMS are performing ice rescues at Henderson Lake as part of their ongoing course training.
 
Water Rescue Team Co- leader John Kesslar says this time of year, especially with the warming and cooling cycles, venturing out on the ice anywhere is a terrible idea. And if you do fall though, you don’t have much time before you lose consciousness.
 
“What happens is the person enters the ice, and for about a minute there’s what’s called ‘uncontrolled hyperventilation’ where you’re gasping for breath. Hopefully you’re not underwater when that happens and you don’t get a lot of water in your lungs. If you can make it through that first minute you usually have about 10 minutes where your hands are still functioning….. your body is still working; you might be able to pull yourself out of the ice hole. Somebody might be able to throw something out to you, like a rope.”
 
But after 10 minutes, he says if you’re not rescued, your body starts to shut down and you will likely only remain conscious for another 50 minutes. Over the last couple of years the department has had to rescue a number of pets, and even a couple owners who have gone after their pets that have fallen through the ice.
 
“The ice here in Lethbridge most of the time is fairly unstable, just because we have lots of warm weather and changing weather conditions and stuff like that. So we tell everybody, best to just stay off the ice around here unless you’re really comfortable with understanding ice quality and conditions.”
 
He says that’s one of the reasons why they are hoping everyone in the department can get certified over the next few years. At the beginning of the winter season as the ice is starting to form, they brush up on their techniques, and then they try to give one or two courses a year to anywhere from 15 to 30 members at a technician level.
 
“So that way it doesn’t matter which station is coming out, they all have ice rescue equipment and everyone is able to perform these rescues.”