Rescue from lake

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Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
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Wednesday, Feburary 28, 1973

A 13-year-old boy stranded on an ice floe more than 250 yards out in Lake Ontario was rescued by members of the volunteer Beach Strip rescue unit today.

Bruce Davies of Beach Boulevard and two friends on their way to school about 8.30 a.m. when they decided to go ice-floe hopping near the Skyway Bridge
A southwest wind pushing a large mass of ice, with the boys on it, into open water, but they were not immediately aware of the danger.
Two of the boys, Frank Kelman and Eugene Perry both 13, managed to jump to safety but their friend couldn't make it and became trapped.
BY THIS TIME neighbors on Beach Boulevard noticed the boys and called police.
Mrs. Maxine Lawson said she yelled at them to come to shore but the boys paid no attention.
Frank Kelman said when Bruce first became stranded he used a stick to paddle the floe to more firm ice but it kept drifting away.
When members of the Beach Strip rescue unit arrived the floe with the young boy on it had begun drifting well out into the lake.
Two of the volunteers Wes Hamilton and John Tambourine clambered over the ice dragging a small aluminum boat and until they reached water rowed out to the boy.
A HAMILTON Harbor Police ice boat stood by and the boy was brought to safety.
Bruce said afterwards that he and his friends had often played the ice-floe hopping game. "But there was never much distance to jump," he said.
Harbor police say ice on Burlington Bay is solid as far east as the Stelco docks but beyond that there is mainly floe ice which they warn could break up at any time.