What Not To Do When Trying To Rescue Someone From A Frozen Lake [Video]

Do you know what to do if you ever had to rescue someone that has fallen into a frozen lake?

Gawker recently posted about a guy that fell into a frozen lake on Christmas morning in Wrightwood, California. His friend went to help him, however, he had no clue what he was doing and fell in himself. Then someone else came to help both of hem … and he fell in. Then some more people came to help them and they fell in.

Luckily, all of the people that fell into the frozen lake were pulled to safety. However, it could have all been avoided if they knew the proper procedure on how to rescue someone in that predicament.

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, these people went about rescuing the first victim all wrong.

As soon as someone falls into a frozen lake, the first thing to do is call 911. Also, the people made the mistake to run to the edge of the ice. This caused the ice to weaken and the whole to expand.

The Minnesota DNR posted these directions on how to save someone from a frozen lake on their website:

PREACH ? Shout to the victim to encourage them to fight to survive and reassure them that help is on the way.

REACH ? If you can safely reach the victim from shore, extend an object such as a rope, ladder, or jumper cables to the victim. If the person starts to pull you in, release your grip on the object and start over.

THROW ? Toss one end of a rope or something that will float to the victim. Have them tie the rope around themselves before they are too weakened by the cold to grasp it.

ROW ? Find a light boat to push across the ice ahead of you. Push it to the edge of the hole, get into the boat and pull the victim in over the bow. It’s not a bad idea to attach some rope to the boat, so others can help pull you and the victim to safety.

GO ? A non?professional shouldn’t go out on the ice to perform a rescue unless all other basic rescue techniques have been ruled out.

If the situation is too dangerous for you to perform the rescue, call 911 for help and keep reassuring the victim that help is on the way and urge them to fight to survive. Heroics by well?meaning but untrained rescuers sometimes result in two deaths.

Here is the video that shows what happened when a big group of people tried to rescue one person that fell into a frozen lake, but went about it the wrong way: