Ice Boat Rescue January 1989

Rescue Workers pull father, son from icy Bantam Lake

By DANIELA WATERMAN Register Citizen Staff

MORRIS - Rescue workers pulled a father and son from the frigid waters of Bantam Lake Thursday morning after their iceboat crashed Through ice that is dangerously thin despite the recent cold snap.

John Wyatt Uhlein, 61, of Litchfield, and his son, John Wyatt Uhlein III, 31, of New Canaan, spent more than 30 minutes in the icy waters of the lake after their boat struck thin ice and sank near Deer Island. They were rescued by volunteer firefighters from Morris and Bantam shortly after 11 a.m.

"I'm just happy to be here," the younger Uhlein said in a telephone in-terview late Thursday from his fa-ther's Litchfield home.

He credits the quick response of lo-cal emergency response crews and clear thinking on his part for saving their lives.

"It's amazing. I got scared after we were out. But when it was happening, I didn't panic," the son said.

Father and son were treated for hy-pothermia and released from Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington.

The pair was sailing along at about 40 mph when the iceboat broke through the ice. The elder Uhlein fell into the 3O-degree water, while his son man-aged to stay afloat.

"I was hoping to crawl my way to safety, but the ice was so thin, it kept cracking," the younger Uhlein said. "Finally, I managed to get on a piece that was about four inches thick."

Grace Bergius, the younger Uhlein's sister, who was scheduled to fly to Scotland Thursday afternoon, was watching from the shore and noticed that the men had disappeared from view.

After alerting passerby Walter Sherman, who was driving by the pond, Bergius attempted to rescue her brother and father in a small wooden rowboat.

Sherman called the Morris Volunteer Fire Department at 10:45 a.m.
"It was a very panicky scene," he said.

Morris firefighter Brian Skilton plunged in to rescue the two men. Skil-ton was wearing a protective suit de-signed to help him withstand freezing temperatures.
Skilton modestly brushed aside sug-gestions of heroism, saying only, "This is something I chose to do."

But Uhlien credits Skilton, Morris firefighter Fred Eichmann and others with helping to save him and his fa-ther. The Bantam Volunteer Fire De-partment also came to the scene of the accident.

"We're very thankful they've got the experience," he said.

Morris has not seen an accident of this type since 1985, when a man drowned in the icy waters of the Wig-wam Reservoir, Deputy Fire Chief Lewis Clark said. Shortly after that incident, the department purchased the protective foam suits and took courses in rescuing people who have fallen through ice.

Portions of Bantam Lake remain unsafe for iceboating and skating de-spite frigid temperatures the past few days, Clark said.

"On parts of the lake, the ice is five inches thick. Other parts, it's only one inch and parts are not even frozen at all. It's pretty treacherous out there," Clark said.

The water was not frozen just 500 feet from where the Uhleins were res-cued, he said.

Still, Uhlein said he had taken his boat out on the ice Wednesday. He also said he had seen people skating in the
area when they set out. ?.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• ice
• boat
• rescue