9 year old lost under the ice while playing on it Lake Erie

[Old Ironmaker]

A tragic story that hits close to home. Peacock Point on the Canadian side of the lake isn't 10 minutes by boat from us. 3 children were playing on what little ice we have here in the area and the 9 year old and another went through it. The article explains the rest. We are on the next point east of Peacock. I didn't hear the helicopters searching Saturday because of high winds but they were mere yards off shore in front of our place all day Sunday. Close enough for one of rescuers to hand signal to me to keep my eyes open for the child. That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There are Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) choppers, Canadian Coast Guard choppers and even a helicopter from The U.S. Coast guard searching yesterday and today. We have 4' breakers on shore, unsafe for divers. The US Coast Guard often joins the searches here on The Great Lakes and we in turn help them in their time of need. That is heart warming indeed.

Last summer a young father drowned fishing out of a little 8' blow up dingy even closer to us. They searched for 4 days before the body was recovered not 50 yards from where they found the dingy in 10' of water, the search grid had expanded to 15 kilometres over those search days. No life jacket of course. There is no rhyme or reason to the strong currents we have here on Erie.

When I 1st heard of this tragic drowning I got angry.The 3 kids were playing on the ice. Where were the adults? Then I remembered when I was 9, we were warned of all manner of things not to do but we were kids and did it anyway. Maybe in spite of adults warning us, if it's taboo it must be fun.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...-opp-1.5466557

 

[dingbat]

Glad they found him.

Had a guy go missing November 19th in a boating accident. Washed up on shore 60 miles away almost 3 months later.

Four went in the water, only 1 survived the ordeal.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

They haven't found Alex yet. This afternoon at 4 this place started to shake and I looked outside and there was an O.P.P. helicopter no further than 50' from our shoreline; Close enough and slow enough to see the face of the guy in the right seat. The rescue worker again signalled to me with the 2 fingers to his eyes and then to the water below. I knew exactly what he meant, keep an eye out for Alex.About an hour later a OPP cruiser pulled up to our place. An officer came to the door and asked if I was going to go for a walk please walk the shoreline as far in each direction I could go. Of course I will, it's the least I can do. We are the only residence here within a kilometer on our laneway full time at this time of the year. I hope they find the kid soon for the sake of his parents. Finding a body 3 months later is brutal.

 

[redneck joe]

seriously was just thinking a couple days ago about all the stupid s..t i did on thin ice, and about this age up to 15 or so. The few times i did break thru i was in waist deep or less.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

seriously was just thinking a couple days ago about all the stupid s..t i did on thin ice, and about this age up to 15 or so. The few times i did break thru i was in waist deep or less.

Some still do stupid stuff and they are in their 70's not teens. I know guys that will ice fish on 2" of ice. My icefishing days are over, no safe ice for hundreds of miles from us anyway. I was going to go for a walk this AM but saw a group already down there. No news yet on the recovery.

The latest news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hami...e-opp-search-recovery-peacock-point-1.5467519

 

[82rude]

Last time I was on the ice it was 5 feet of solid blue ice.That little lake could of supported a division of abrams that year!I hate and fear/respect ice bigtime.We have a place north of me called batchawana narrows that every 15 or so years claims several people at once.My younger brother was SAR and the stories I heard would give you nightmares!

 

[82rude]

P.S. hope they find the poor child soon.Ive seen some grewsome things but the absolute worst was a suicide by transport.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Last time I was on the ice it was 5 feet of solid blue ice.That little lake could of supported a division of abrams that year!I hate and fear/respect ice bigtime.We have a place north of me called batchawana narrows that every 15 or so years claims several people at once.My younger brother was SAR and the stories I heard would give you nightmares!

I as well have more than great respect for ice, or soft water. We icefished for years around here on Lake Erie and as far north as Nipissing, that was when we had safe ice. There are no longer ice hut rental outfitters near us on Erie, we haven't had safe ice for years, there were hundreds in other winters. Outfitters had to pay their liability insurance before the start of the season and there was zero guarantee they would make a penny if no ice, or unsafe ice. So they have all packed it up and an entire recreational industry has shut down here as well as most north of Toronto. The last time I went was 12 years ago on The Bay of Quinte. We didn't have sleds so we walked out. I walked past a guy sitting next to his hole and started to flip out on me because I was too close. As I walked I saw water coming out of the hole he augured. The ice was maybe 2" thick. I gingerly walked the 100 yards back to shore. The 2 buddies I was with spent the day on that more than sketchy ice. I drove back to the motel and watched fishing shows on TV. It hit -30 that night and we had 5". that's safe enough for me, 15" isn't for some. For those south of us I have to tell you sometimes ice 24" deep is not safe when under fresh snow. Those guys are insane and I never went back ice fishing again. It's safe if you have good blue ice if you don't and insist on risking your life for a few fish well go for it stupid. I've never gone through not once in 25 years of icefishing but guess what? Those 2 diffuses have, more than once!!!!An individual that does stupid things and has a semblance of intelligence is simply ignorant. I once set up a trip to North Bay with a few cousins from Atlanta. We had 15" of solid ice and one of them didn't leave the cabin we stayed in.

My nephew is a Paramedic in the Niagara area. He won't talk about what they see on a regular basis. He did say the worse is when they find a deceased child. You couldn't pay me enough to do SAR or be a Paramedic. In all my years in the steel plant I had a few critical injuries but was lucky enough to not have a fatality on my shift, others I worked side by side with were not so lucky and it affected them their entire lives. One of the guys that worked for me witnessed a man commit suicide when he jumped into a trough of molten Iron at 2600F. He was on special duties and a mess the rest of his life.

 

[82rude]

As you know I worked at Algoma steel for 35 years and in the late 70,s came upon 7 fatal accidents which I smartly avoided as best I could.My second posting in there was in number 4 blast furnace as a cinder-snapper .I replaced a poor fella that fell in a slagpot just before they opened the slag runner which doomed him to a horrible death.Several guys were never the same after that horrible mess.When I operated the 400 ton crane that fed the 2 casters with molten steel every once in a while it would give me the willies realizing that one scewup on my part could kill 30 innocent people.Of course every contract time I listened to the armchair experts say how much we were overpaid.Yeh right!

 

[Old Ironmaker]

You have struck a nerve 82rude. People don't realize how hazardous it is in even a modern Steel Plant today. More miners (Blast Furnaces are under the OHSA for mines and mining plants in Ontario) and construction workers will be killed in accidents this year than all the 1st responders and Candian military personel were in the last 10 years in all of Canada. No 10 gun salutes and parades for us. You might know I ended up as operations General Forum in our Hamilton Blast Furnaces when I took my early pension after 27.5 years there. Safety was improved by leaps and bounds from when you and 1st started in the stell plant. I was lucky to get out virtually unscathed as were you I believe. I took on a job for the Ont. Ministry of Labour after I left their and inspected hundreds of plants in Ontario. None came close to the hazards, I'll say it dangers, (brass don't like the word danger for some rediculous reason the same goes for eruption rather than expolosion), as the steel industry today even with the changes in H&S. I did have to investigate a fatality at a plant outside London but the deceased was removed by the Coroner before we went in.

edit: Over paid, yea right, don't get me started. How much would you need to pay someone to go into a confined space using a 50 pound Scott Air Pac on Christmas Eve when only Santa is working? A cinder snapper, that brings back memories. We called that job "#2 Monkey Man" of all things. When I got on the job it didn't exist any longer.

 

[racerone]

Danger / safety can lead to many discussions.-------Take for example the pile up near Montreal.----200 vehicles involved.----100 vehicles damaged.----" only " 2 fatalities so far.----Dozens injured.-----The big question is WHY DID IT HAPPEN ?-----Would self driving vehicles prevent these pile ups ?-----Folks just refuse to stop taking risks.-------Done some jobs myself and if they offered me $500 / hr to do the same job today I would politely say----" find somebody else please "

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Danger / safety can lead to many discussions.-------Take for example the pile up near Montreal.----200 vehicles involved.----100 vehicles damaged.----" only " 2 fatalities so far.----Dozens injured.-----The big question is WHY DID IT HAPPEN ?-----Would self driving vehicles prevent these pile ups ?-----Folks just refuse to stop taking risks.-------Done some jobs myself and if they offered me $500 / hr to do the same job today I would politely say----" find somebody else please "

I don't know how a self driving car would handle ice and snow. Unless there are self driving tractor trailers these huge pile ups on the 400 series highways here will always happen. People just do not know how to drive today. The bigger we maje these highways the faster people go. I was driving the 403 near Hamilton the other day. I was doing 115 in a 100 in the slow lane and they were passing me doing 130, maybe 140, no such thing as a slow lane today. Some sections of the 401 outside Toronto is 8 freeking lanes wide and they fly through it. I won't drive the 400 series unless it's the only way to get there, which of course it isn't.

I as well did some crazy jobs before there was such a thing as health and safety, job procedures. I was 16 working summers and weekends in steel plants and GM plants, if a parent sent a 16 year old in those places today they would be facing charges for child endangerment, this time I'm not being sarcastic. As I age I wouldn't do many jobs I did when I was 40 even. I lost my fearlessness, or translated, stupidity.

They still haven't found the little guy. Diving called off today, 4 foot waves here and about 50 years of slush on top.

The story gets sadder. Alex's sister witness him going into the water and disappear. His friend and he were simply sitting on a piece of ice attached to the beach when a wave came in and swept his pal into the water. Alex went in the water and pulled his buddy out but couldn't get out himself. He must have succumbed to hypothermia, It only tales seconds before your body doesn't work any longer. Ah man I'm getting choked up.

 

[Tim Frank]

They recovered him today. Closure for the family ....of a sort.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Yes they did tim Frank. A lakeshore resident was looking out the window and saw something in the water and contacted the authorities. A search helicopter was in the area looking for a commercial fisherman that went overboard and found the young Hero Alex's body. Words can't express the grief this family is going through. Although it is heart warming as to how our community came together to search for young Alex. Businesses supplied temporary shelter, drinks and food for the rescuers that braved some terrible winter weather we had here.

The commercial fisherman is a well known character in our area that had a humerous Blog and is presumed to be drowned. So many questions as to how a professional can go overboard in good weather. Not sure if it was night when the tragedy occurred.

 

[82rude]

Two ways old ,He accidently tripped and lost his balance or the old standbye booze?Maybe another one would be trying to untangle a prop and loose your footing.