(Arnolds Park)– We’re learning some additional details into two separate incidents Thursday evening in which ATV’s went through the ice. Arnolds Park-Okoboji Fire-Rescue Chief Chris Yungbluth says the first incident took place around 5:45 pm just near Smith’s Bay on West Lake Okoboji…
“The ATV actually went into one of our seams that we really know about pretty predominantly through every year which is between Pillsbury and Fort Dodge Point, there’s one that always runs across there most every year. It’s almost impossible to see them at night. Unfortunately those folks drove into the open water there at that seam. There’s five total on that ATV and luckily they were able to self-extricate and walk towards the amusement park where they were treated by medical personnel.”
Yungbluth says they had just returned to the station from that incident when the second call came in…
“This is our most concerning seam that’s out there right now, it’s on East Lake Okoboji and it’s a seam that runs basically from the Bridges Bay area to Chalstrom Beach or if you think about it just west of the Barefoot Bar there, and it runs completely across the lake and there’s open water out there as well. Again, driving ATV’s at night if you’re getting up there to speed a little bit, you’re just not going to see it before you get to the water and end up in the water. Luckily there was somebody paying attention having supper over at The Waterfront and was able to go out and assist them out of the water, kind of used his coat as a makeshift rope to get them out of there anyways, didn’t have anything with him having supper, and he was able to get them up on the ice and then we were able to arrive with the air boat and get them loaded up into a warm environment and get them over to medical personnel to be taken care of.”
Two people from the first incident and two others involved in the second were taken to the hospital. Yungbluth says that was done as a precaution…
“Most of it I think was due to cold exposure. I’m not aware of any traumatic injuries with them anyways, so.”
Yungbluth offers some advice for those unfamiliar with the Iowa Great Lakes and where the dangers are located…
“If you’re going to be driving around make sure you’re doing it in the daylight, and stay in the areas that you can see. If you’re going to be driving at night, stay to the areas where you knew in the daytime were safe to drive on if you’re going to go out there. It’s hard to tell people no, not have good time, not ride on the ice. We can’t close the lake, that’s just something we’re not able to do. That’s something we wouldn’t want to do. We think that people need to use common sense, look for local information. Bait shops are great. There’s a lot of bait shops in the area that do a great job posting so that they can keep their customers safe and they’re more than willing to usually talk to you or get it out on social media. We do have it out on social media as well, we don’t have all of the open areas listed but we’ve got some aerial photos that show that East Lake seam really well.”
Yungbluth adds the situation could have been much more tragic had the second call came in about 20 minutes earlier than it did as their resources are limited…
“You know there’s only one air boat in the lakes area so if you get in trouble and we’re already helping somebody else out we might not be able to get to you right away. We’ll send other resources to you but our best resource is our air boat just because it’s the safest method for us to get out there to you anyway, so. Last night was an example. We just barely got back to the station for when that second call came in. If it had been a little bit different timing it would have been a whole different idea on how to go out and help folks.”
Meanwhile, we have reports of a vehicle that went through the ice a little after 11:00 am this (Fri.) morning on East Lake Okoboji, just off of Chalstrom Beach. Two people who were in that vehicle managed to get out before it actually went into the water and were unharmed.
