A Chicago student was reportedly rescued Friday after walking off the shore of frozen Lake Michigan.
“The person on the ice near 5500 S LSD apparently didn’t realize he was walking on ice,” wrote Chicago Fire Media. “This rescue went smoothly but the outcome could have easily been a tragedy.”
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“Avoid the ice at all costs,” the department warned. “No ice is safe ice!”
According to Fox 32, a 911 call was made by bystanders who were concerned as the 24-year-old was more than 1,000 feet off the shore at Promontory Point in what is normally 20-feet-deep water.
Rescuers pull the student to safety
(Chicago Fire Media @CFDMedia)
The college student reportedly told the Chicago Fire Department that he didn’t know he was on water during his approximately 40-minute walk, and said he only stopped strolling on the ice because he heard police sirens.
CFD Marine Unit Chief Jason Lach told the station that the man was “more than 1,000 feet offshore on broken ice” and that crews had been hitting patches of open water. The student had been waving emergency crews away, not realizing they were there to rescue him.
Emergency personnel escorted the student off the ice in an inflatable canoe just after 8 a.m. ET, according to the report, and he was ticketed with disorderly conduct.
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“We were terribly worried that he was going to fall into the lake, so we called 911,” one witness told Fox 32. “He seemed like he was on a mission.”
WGN 9 reported that a responder had fallen through the ice during the rescue, but is OK.
According to December statistics from the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, which tracks drownings, 47 of the 98 Great Lakes drownings were in Lake Michigan.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says about 11 people die each day from drowning in the U.S.
Nearly 4,000-people die each year in the U.S. and nearly 80% of people who die from drowning are male.
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The agency said that there were about 8,000 emergency department visits for non-fatal drowning each year between 2010 and 2019.
