Winter has barely started, yet already more than 10 incidents involving falls through ice, several of them fatal, have been reported in the news media. Experts blame unseasonably warm temperatures and alternate freezing and thawing for the dangerous conditions.

“We urge everyone to stay off all frozen bodies of water,” said Kim Burgess, executive director of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance. “The perceived recreational benefit is simply not worth the risk to yourself or your loved ones.”

“It’s also important to prevent pets from roaming onto ice,” adds NDPA Board Member Gerald M. Dworkin, an aquatics safety and water rescue consultant at Lifesaving Resources LLC. “More than half of ice emergency 911 calls are triggered by people trying to save a pet who fell through ice. Never attempt to rescue an animal yourself, but rather, call 911.”

“Ice seldom freezes uniformly,” explains Dworkin. “It will be thinner when it has formed over moving water and where it surrounds partially submerged objects.” He adds that snow-covered ice and ice that has thawed and refrozen is not as strong as new, clear, hard ice.

Dworkin offers the following self-rescue and response tips:

If you fall through ice -

• Do not try to climb out immediately. Instead, kick to get horizontal in the water with your legs behind your torso. Then, try to pull yourself forward onto solid ice.
• Once out of the water, roll away and avoid standing until you are several body lengths away from the ice break.
• A set of ice picks is an ideal safety tool for rescuers and victims alike. When the ice pick is jammed on the ice, the retractable sheath exposes the pick. This allows a rescuer to crawl out to the victim, or gives a victim the opportunity to crawl his way out of the ice hole.

When trying to rescue a person who has fallen through ice -

• Call or have someone call 911 first.
• Try to improvise a buoyant throwing assist, such as an empty jug with a line attached.
• If going onto ice to reach a victim is unavoidable, use a device to distribute the rescuer’s weight over a wide area.
• Use a reaching assist to prevent the rescuer from being dragged into the water by the victim.

“All first responders should be trained and equipped for ice rescue,” says Dworkin. “Ice rescue suits, ice picks, water rescue rope, and an animal control stick are the minimum equipment needed.”

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