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| Two teenagers hang on to a dead tree |
A firefighter in a waterproof suit crossed a partially frozen Arizona lake to help rescue two teenagers who spent at least two frigid hours hanging onto a dead tree after ice began to crack, authorities said Thursday.
A third teen who had stayed on the snow-covered bank of Fool Hollow
Lake near Show Low called for help Wednesday while the other two clung
to the tree, authorities said.
Emergency personnel retrieved the boys after firefighter Jack Gessner made his way across the lake with a rope attached to a boat carrying other rescuers.
Gessner said he initially crawled
atop the ice then had to make his way through the water after he had
covered half of the 200 feet and the ice broke.
His suit and training worked as designed, leaving him dry but tired.
"I thought it went well. It was a
really good team effort and everybody did their jobs," said Gessner, a
firefighter on the ice rescue team of Lakeside Fire District.
Gessner said the boys didn't seem
to be panicking, and they were OK as he swam by the tree to reach the
shore and get a foothold to hold the rope.
The boys were taken to a hospital for treatment of mild hypothermia.
"Their hands and feet got pretty cold," Show Low Fire Capt. Brent Mix said. "It was dark by the time we got them to shore."
Each of the two stranded teenagers lost a shoe that stuck to the ice. Bonnie Van Aller said her son Christian told her he took off one of his shoes when a
branch broke and it got soaked in the lake as his foot slipped.
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