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Men save two children from icy Coquitlam lake

The two boys were taken to hospital to check for hypothermia and shock
Mitch Muir on the shore of Oxbow Lake
Mitch Muir on the shore of Oxbow Lake

Two kids are home safe after a close brush with hypothermia yesterday after they fell through the ice at Oxbow Lake.

Mitch Muir was working from home on his laptop when he happened to look out his back window. At first, he saw one boy lying on the ice and thought he was just playing around. Just then, a second head popped out from under the ice.

“That’s when I realized it was much more serious,” he told The Tri-City News.

The two 11-year-old boys had gone under and only one had been able to pull himself out. Muir quickly realized a neighbour, Gary Clark, had already launched a kayak and was shuffling through the ice, struggling to reach the boys.

Remembering his ice-rescue training when he was a first responder with the Sasamat Volunteer Fire Department, Muir grabbed his aluminum ladder and ran around to a beach on the other side of the lake.

Muir bumped into another neighbour and the two of them attempted to slide across the ice with the ladder for support.

“We were trying to get on top of the ice, but every time we tried to climb on the ice or step on the ice we just fell through ourselves,” said Muir.

As the two men waded deeper into the lake, the one boy on the surface of the ice followed Clark's advice and slid himself toward shore. But the other boy was still struggling to keep his head above water, clutching the side of the broken ice.

When Muir and the other man got within 10 or 15 feet of the boy, they slid the ladder out to him.

“As soon as the boy grabbed the ladder, we said 'hang on tight.' And good for the kid—he held on tight,” said Muir.

The two men and the boy came ashore, collapsing onto the beach just as emergency vehicles began to arrive. But the rescue wasn’t over. Clark—the neighbour in the kayak who had reassured the boys—had his boat capsized by his dog, as the canine struggled in the icy waters.

That’s when the Coquitlam Fire Department threw Clark a rope and pulled him to safety.

“It’s a typical ice rescue—these horror stories you hear about. The rescuer goes out to help and they become the victim,” said Coquitlam Fire Chief Jim Ogloff.

As for Muir, he’s just glad everyone got there when they did. “In the moment, your adrenaline is going and you're not really thinking about your own personal safety,” he said.

"It was really good timing.”