John Steitz was waiting for an accident to happen.
All day he watched snowmobiles skimming across a small channel of water in the otherwise frozen Bluff Lake near Antioch. Eventually, one would fail to make it across, he thought. So, the 26-year-old resort owner kept a 100-foot nylon rope handy just in case.
At 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Steitz`s fears came true.
”I saw one go over,” Steitz said Sunday. ”The next one didn`t make it.”
Within moments Steitz was on the lake speeding to the scene on a friend`s snowmobile. In the water, a 34-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter were fighting for their lives.
”They went under the water and popped back out. Then they went in again,” Steitz said.
What followed was a textbook case in rescue, according to Kirk Kleist, chief scuba diver for the Chicago Park District life guard service. The man was in shock and couldn`t grab the rope that Steitz repeatedly threw to him.
Steitz took one end of the rope and jumped in the water as his friend held it ready to pull them to safety.
In minutes, the girl was on solid ice, where she was covered with jackets. Steitz held onto the man, ”yelling and shouting at him to keep him conscious,” he said.
They were both eventually brought onshore by a rescuer in a boat.
The incident is one of several this winter. In December, a South Elgin man died while snowmobiling on thin ice in Kane County; seven snowmobile enthusiasts plunged into icy waters of Channel Lake near Antioch, and two Oak Forest girls fell through the ice while skating on a seemingly frozen pond this month. The skaters and the Channel Lake snowmobilers were rescued.
According to Kleist, who searches for victims, ice is most treacherous at the beginning of the winter freeze and during the spring thaw.
”The best advice I can give is: Unless it`s been tested as being safe, stay off the ice,” Kleist said Sunday while demonstrating rescue techniques on a Lincoln Park lagoon. ”You could get killed. Just stay off it. Period.” Kleist said the most dangerous ice is that covering moving water, like Lake Michigan which is never safe, and areas near the shore on smaller ponds where ice is thinnest.
If you do venture on an icy pond or lagoon, and hear cracking under your feet, immediately lie flat on your stomach and spread your arms, he said.
”That way your weight is spread out, and you have less of a chance to break through,” he said.
If ylf on to solid ice then roll over to safety, he said.
For people who see someone fall through the ice, Kleist has the following advice: Call 911 immediately and let the professsionals take care of it. You should only go on the ice as a last resort.
”Throw them a rope, a line, a jacket or anything that they can grab”
and pull them slowly towards you. Keep talking to them, calming them down,”
he said. ”A regular spare tire can keep three or four people afloat.”
