Pickering fire says no ice is safe ice, but there are some things you can do to help yourself if you happen to fall through thin ice.
They say try not to climb back out from where you fell in.
Deputy Fire Chief Steve Boyd says you should use the air trapped in your clothing to get into a floating position on your stomach, reach forward onto the broken ice without pushing down and kick your legs to propel your torso onto the ice.
“You want to face forward and see where you are in relation [to the shore] and wave your hands [so] if there’s someone on the shore… they can see you.”
He says you should also yell for help.
When you are back on the ice, Boyd says crawl on your stomach and spread out your arms and legs.
“Make yourself as big as possible,” said Boyd. “So spread your body over the ice as best as possible to obviously not create as much weight per square inch.”
You should look for the shore and make sure you’re heading in the right direction.
Boyd says they never encourage anyone to go out onto the ice, but sometimes people fall through thin ice when they’re walking and it’s covered with snow.
Link to original article on durhamradionews.com: What to do if you fall through thin ice