Lily Kennedy and husband Jeff Skillen were walking their dogs at Beaver Lake on Sunday morning when they heard “a lot of screaming and splashing.”
They saw a woman flat on her stomach inching her way across the ice toward a large golden retriever- type dog in the water.
Kennedy and Skillen saw the dog’s head poking above the water about 18 metres from shore.
“She’s screaming for the dog,” Kennedy said. “[I thought] Oh God, it’s going under — like there’s no way anyone is going to save it.”
It took the woman about 10 minutes to get close to her pet. “But as soon as she puts her arms out to get him, she breaks the ice and she goes in.”
The woman’s brother, who was on shore, took off his boots and outer clothing to walk out to rescue his sister and the ice broke under him as well, Kennedy said.
The water was deep and the man and woman were swimming, said Kennedy, who figures the two were in the water about half an hour.
Skillen, who called 911, threw large logs onto the ice to try to create a path for them.
The siblings and dog made it to shore, where ambulances and fire trucks were waiting for them. The pair were taken to hospital and later discharged.
Kennedy and Skillen say they will avoid walking their own dogs near the lake until warmer temperatures return in the wake of the incident, one of at least two involving dogs during the recent cold snap.
Late Monday morning, another dog was spotted on ice in Brentwood Bay, which is partly frozen.
Emergency flares were fired from boats in the bay and and the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre was notified at 11:35 a.m. They sent Royal Canadian Marine Search and and Rescue volunteers with their aluminum boat and the Canadian Coast Guard Cape Kuper vessel out to investigate.
SAR volunteer John Harper said it turned out that the dog, whose owner lives nearby, had broken through the ice and drowned.
Harper said the same SAR group took their boat out on Brentwood Bay again Tuesday to deliver a large jug of water and propane for heat to a man living on board his boat who had run out of supplies.
They then went to all the liveaboards to make sure everyone was OK, Harper said. “Kind of a voluntary wellness check.”
They made a pathway through the ice with their vessel so another boat could get to shore.
At Maple Lake in Cumberland, rescue crews say a teenager had a lucky escape after plunging through thin ice into 1.5-metre-deep water on Sunday.
Stephane Dionne, deputy fire chief at the Cumberland Fire Department, said crews were called to the scene, but when they arrived, the boy had dragged himself out already.
“We were lucky that he didn’t stay long in the water, but the shock of going into the four-degree water was really bad for him,” said Dionne, who advised people to stay off ice in the area.
“If you want to skate, go to the arena or someplace like that because the mild weather we have in the valley on the Island isn’t safe at all.”
On the mainland, a woman fell through the ice at Okanagan Lake on Saturday afternoon while walking her dogs.
Sophie Ehiasson says her 18-year-old sister was walking their labrador retriever near Kalamoir Regional Park in West Kelowna when the dog ran onto the ice and fell through.
Ehiasson says her sister “army-crawled” onto the ice in an attempt to rescue her drowning dog, but fell through the ice herself. A bystander then ventured onto the ice to attempt to rescue the pair.
“She was already half out of the ice when the guy came to rescue her and then he broke the ice and she fell back in. The dog was freaking out. It was standing on top of her trying to get out.
“But she had watched a TikTok video on how to get out of ice. So she instructed the guy what to do to get out of the ice, and then he pulled her dog out.”
The dog was unharmed.
Anyone who witnesses someone falling through the ice is advised to call 911 immediately, stay on solid ground, and continue to watch the person until trained and equipped personnel arrive to conduct the rescue.
As for dogs, Eileen Drever, senior protection officer and stakeholder relations for the B.C. SPCA, recommends keeping them on a leash at all times when you’re near ice.
— with files from The Canadian Press and Castanet
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