Residents asked to consider their safety while using outdoor ice surfaces

LETHBRIDGE – The City of Lethbridge and local emergency services are urging you to play it safe on the ice this winter.
 
Kevin Jensen, parks operation manager, explained that the City regularly monitors areas on Chinook, Henderson and Nicholas Sheran lakes to ensure they’re thick enough for public use.
 
“As soon as we see that there’s no more open water, then our guys will start testing. Usually we test right around the shoreline edges to make sure it’s four inches thick… Once it gets up to eight inches thick, we will clear the areas and put the posts around for skating areas. At ten inches thick, we’re allowed our equipment to fully go on the ice,” Jensen said.
 
However, residents are cautioned to stay away from Lethbridge’s 27 storm ponds at all times, especially since the City isn’t able to test them.
 
Brendon Pyne, co-leader of the Lethbridge fire and EMS water rescue ream, stressed that the water level beneath the ice is always fluctuating, which causes the surface to become unstable.
 
“It looks like there’s ice and water underneath, but the water can actually be several feet below the ice,” he explained. “If you happen to fall through that, nobody will see you, you’ll be below ice level. You might not be able to even get your hand up high enough.”
 
Additionally, Pyne says to keep pets on leashes around ice surfaces, to not go after them if they fall through, wear a personal flotation device and call 911 immediately if an incident does happen.
 
The water rescue team responds to a number of calls every winter, and is trained with special techniques and equipment to safely help people and animals that fall through the ice.