Two men were fishing on a slab of ice connected to the bank of an Illinois river Monday when the 20-by-20-foot patch of ice broke free and began slowly making its way downriver.
The incident occurred on the Rock River in downtown Rockford where the unidentified fishermen were at the mercy of the river and ice as the floe traveled some 500 yards downstream.
“Luckily, the current was moving very slowly,” Rockford Fire District Chief Luis Duran told the Rockford Register Star.
Witnesses immediately called 911 and the Rock River Water Rescue team arrived on the scene and plucked the two fishermen from the ice floe with an inflatable banana boat. Fortunately nobody was injured in the incident.
#UPDATE Rock River Water Rescue. Two people were rescued from a large floating piece of ice from the river. The ice they were fishing from near the shore broke off causing them to float down down the river. pic.twitter.com/oyQONEVb7M
— Rockford Fire (@RockfordFire) March 2, 2021
Commenters on the Loves Park Neighborhood Watch Group on Facebook made light of what the fishermen were forced to leave behind, as several commented that when rescued off any ice like this, the rescuers only take you, no gear.
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Remaining on the ice floe going downstream were two ice augers, a fishing rod, a bag of chips, a plastic water bottle with some drink remaining and a … mattress?
“My question is why did they have 2 hand augers and a casting rod? I don’t even wanna know about the mattress,” one commenter wrote.
Duran told the Star that the fishermen were fortunate the slab of ice didn’t break up. Instead it remained in one piece to keep them afloat and prevented them from falling into the river and risking hypothermia.
Photos courtesy of the Rockford Fire Department and Loves Park Neighborhood Watch Group on Facebook.
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