Bored on a day off and in the market for a snowmobile, Art Constant went to J&B Cycle and Marine last night. He knew the store was closed, but wanted to check out the machines in the lot.
“As I got out of my truck and started walking around, I thought there was passerbys, you know some kids in a car or truck, and they were just yelling out the window, like what young kids would be doing,” he explained.
Back in his truck, he had a feeling the yelling was more than that.
“There was this brief, intuitive moment that said ‘wait a minute, you should take a double check on this’....something didn’t fit,” he said.
It turns out, someone was stuck on the ice of the Mattagami River across from the Fish Bowl.
“I couldn’t see the kid, but I knew it was a kid. I said ‘Hello’, he said ‘Help me, I’m stuck, I’m stuck,” he recalled.
Constant told him not to move, and called for help.
Timmins deputy fire chief Ellard Beaven said the fire department received the call around 8:40 p.m. Dec. 10.
Fulltime firefighters from the Timmins Fire Department responded to the south side of the river off Feldman Road, and volunteers from the Mountjoy Station went to Riverside Drive on the north shore.
“The individual had made it across (the river), he had fallen through a couple of times but was unable to get himself out and he continued to walk to the south side,” said Beaven.
Snow and bush made accessing the victim from the south side hard.
Instead, Beaven said the Mountjoy firefighters used an inflatable rescue device to get across to the individual. Everyone made it off the ice safely.
A mine rescue volunteer, Constant's training kicked in when he realized the situation.
He took the lead, assessed the situation, and didn't put himself at risk by going on the ice.
“We all our have our little aspects in our specified areas, but at the end of the day when it comes to a crisis, our reaction is kind of the same in how to handle the situation,” he said.
After Timmins firefighters and emergency responders were on scene, Constant snapped a photo and shared it to Facebook as a reminder for people to not walk on the ice on the river.
“It’s a fast current river that should never, ever be trusted,” he said.
Having received dozens of comments on the photo, and hundreds of shares, he added to it this morning.
He wanted to say the real rescuers are the firefighters that came into action, and that the reaction time was about 10 minutes after he called.
"...the bottom line here and the accomplishment we feel as rescuers is that the young man was rescued and he's safe and his family will have a great holiday knowing that," reads the post.
With dams on the Mattagami River, Beaven noted the water can fluctuate at any time without anyone knowing.
“With a flowing body of water that is controlled by dams, I’d err on the side of caution...as opposed to a stationary body of water like a lake, because that’s not going to fluctuate,” he said.
Every time someone goes out and the ice isn't safe, he said lives are put in danger.
“People want to help, they see someone in danger - they’re going to try to help. You’re putting more people in danger as the call would proceed. All our staff are well trained in this, we have so many safeties in place that our people aren’t injured or in jeopardy, but it’s still a call that could potentially injure one of our firefighters,” said Beaven.
Annually, he said the department might get two to three life-threatening ice calls.
While it's a low-frequency call, he said it's high stress.
“This you know 100 per cent you’re going to save someone, it puts everyone in a heightened awareness. But it doesn’t happen that often, that’s why we have to continue that type of training and be prepared,” he said.
