Cold air doesn’t always mean safe ice, and the experience of a couple of firefighters responding to an island on Saturday drove home that point.

Two Gilford firefighters were returning to the mainland after searching Welch Island for a reported fire when their vehicle crashed through weakened ice. Both firefighters were able to climb out of the ice and return to shore without injury.

Emergency services were alerted to the possibility of a building fire on the eastern side of Welch Island at 7:28 a.m. on Jan. 18, said Gilford Fire Chief Stephen Carrier

“We had a caller from Tuftonboro Neck Road, who was looking across the lake and was adamant that there was a building on fire on Welch Island,” Carrier said. Gilford was among the departments to respond. One of Gilford’s crews went to the end of Belknap Point to look for signs of smoke, while a second crew boarded a side-by-side, a six-wheel UTV fitted with tracks for the snow, and headed out from Glendale Docks.

No indication of fire was observed by either crew, including by the pair on the UTV, which circled the island searching for smoke. The UTV then headed back to Glendale Docks but instead ended up on the bottom of the lake.

“They were coming around Belknap Point, they hit a pressure ridge that had weakened ice, and the UTV started breaking through the ice,” Carrier said.

Ice doesn’t form on Lake Winnipesaukee in a single sheet. Instead, it starts forming in coves and bays, then those sheets grow out across the lake until they meet another. Where two sheets of ice meet can create a pressure ridge, where they press against one another. These ridges create hazards of weak or thin ice, even in the middle of the coldest of winters.

Carrier said his firefighters tried to drive the machine out of the breaking ice and onto a stable shelf. The lake was intent on taking the vehicle but spared the firefighters, who leapt from the UTV as it started to sink.

“They were in the water for a short time, they were able to get up onto solid ice, they recovered some equipment off the UTV that was floating and they were able to get back to shore. Neither occupant was injured and we have made arrangements with a recovery company to recover" the UTV, Carrier said.

The UTV was a 2016 Polaris Ranger 6x6 Avalanche, which according to the manufacturer’s website has a dry weight of 1,551 pounds. With two adults, gear and fuel, it likely weighed nearly 1 ton when it broke through the ice.

Firefighters from Laconia donned ice rescue gear and moved to assist the UTV crew in case help was needed. Gilford didn’t need help on the scene, but might need a hand in the near future, as one of its rescue vehicles is out of service.

“We’re out of a UTV, I have talked to Chief [Tim] Joubert in Laconia and they have one that they will make available to us,” Carrier said.

He said on Tuesday that his department was conducting an internal investigation into the incident, and would be submitting a claim to the town’s insurance carrier once all the details were recorded.

“I am sure they will have plenty of questions,” Carrier said. “We are in the process of gathering as much information as we can.”

In the meantime, Carrier said the incident contains a couple of valuable lessons. First, there’s the unpredictability of ice, even in very cold temperatures.

“It just goes to show that the ice conditions are variable. Everyone should take precautions when you go out onto the ice.”

Second, anyone who goes out onto the ice should be prepared in case they do fall in. After all, very few people who fall through the ice expect to do so.

Carrier said the firefighters who were aboard the UTV were wearing personal flotation devices.

“They were prepared, they had that thought in the back of their mind, they were as safe as they could be in that situation,” Carrier said. The fact that they were wearing PFDs likely contributed to their ability to quickly climb out of the ice and back to safety, he said.

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