London, Ont. fire crews help rescue boy from surface of frozen backyard pond
Story by Matthew Trevithick Global News
Fire crews had responded to a home in the area of Highbury Avenue and Sunningdale Road shortly before the noon-hour following a report that a four-year-old child had become stuck on a frozen backyard pond.
“A mother and couple of children were tobogganing near their home, and with this slick ice and snow, the toboggan went a fair bit further than it should have, and the toboggan ended up on to a small pond,” said Jamie Britton, district chief with the London Fire Department.
Britton says the boy’s mother contacted the fire department, and told her son to stay seated on his toboggan. Responding firefighters tossed the boy a rope and were able to pull him back to shore without injury.
“Especially this time of year, or even like the winter we’ve had, no ice out there is really safe ice, and you can’t tell by the look of it what it’s going to do when you step out on to it or venture out onto it,” Britton said.
With the toboggan spreading his weight out, Britton says the situation could have been much different had either the boy or his mother attempted to go onto the ice.
“My understanding is the pond wasn’t too deep, it was probably only 2 to 3 feet deep. But it would have been enough, probably, where the child would have been submerged and trapped underneath the ice.”
The boy had a smile on his face when he was pulled ashore by fire crews, Britton said.
“Probably couldn’t understand why all these people were showing up in his backyard, but it all ended well, and the children and their mom went off to hopefully enjoy the rest of their day.”
