Monument firefighters undergo ice rescue training amid warm up

MONUMENT, Colo. (KRDO) - With a warm stretch of days ahead, it’s especially important not to trust the ice on frozen ponds and lakes. That’s the message Monument firefighters are sending after finishing up a week of ice rescue training Friday.

“This is probably one of the guys’ funnest exercises that they get to do,” Battalion Chief Shannon Balvanz of the Monument Fire Protection District confessed.

You heard that right –  ice rescue training is fun! You get to wear insulated, waterproof suits and hangout on the lake.

“They’re in freezing water right now and they’re actually sweating,” Balvanz explained. 

But falling through the ice and needing a rescue? Obviously not a good time. Balvanz estimates it happens up here in Monument once every couple years.

“It’s not very often that we have to do an ice rescue, which is why we train on it so that when it does happen we’re ready to be able to do so,” Balvanz told KRDO.

Firefighters practice their skills quickly rigging the rope, tossing the boogie board, and pulling people in. There’s a serious need or speed when someone is stuck in near-freezing water.

“We want to do what we can to try and get to them before their body gives out on them and they’re not able to hold onto the ice shelf anymore,” Balvanz told us.

He says you can lose muscle function in less than ten minutes and die in around 25 minutes submerged in extremely cold water.

“We started doing our ice rescue training on Monday and the ice was twelve inches thick. By Tuesday, it had already melted four inches,” Balvanz said. “The ice down here on the Front Range fluctuates so often - that’s why we tell people you should stay off the ice because it’s just really not that safe.”