Deaths on Musquash ice provoke warning from fire chiefs
2 people died when their ATV crashed through the ice at a reservoir near Musquash
Fire chiefs in southern New Brunswick are warning residents to be careful around ice after the deaths of two people who had gone out for an evening ride on a reservoir near Musquash.
A man and woman from Saint John crashed through the ice of the East Branch Reservoir between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, police said.
Their bodies were pulled from the water Tuesday morning.
"It appears that they were out the night before on their all-terrain vehicle and didn't come back," said Wayne Pollock, the fire chief in Musquash, about a 27-kilometre drive west from Saint John.
"The individual that realized that they never came back went out looking for them and he discovered them and reported it to 911."
Pollock said fluctuating temperatures in the area have meant the ice in large bodies of water hasn't frozen enough to support activity.
"There's certainly ice there, and you could probably go some places on it, but a lot of places you can't," Pollock said.
"Obviously they ended up going in a spot that wasn't safe enough to hold them."
Conditions are similar in Moncton, according to the fire Chief Conrad Landry.
He said the department receives about five calls a year to help people stranded because of poor ice conditions on the Peticodiac River.
Landry said people have to realize that weather conditions have changed, and ice once used recreationally isn't necessarily safe now.
"We're not getting the cold winters like we used to have," he said. "Maybe when you were younger, you went to skate on a certain pond or whatever, and it may not be safe anymore."
Landry said the City of Moncton has stopped measuring the ice on lakes and reservoirs because they were rarely safe for people to travel on anyway.
"We're really asking people to avoid it if possible," he said.
People who do venture out on the ice should only do so with another person, someone who can get help if there's an accident, he said.
He also advised people spread apart as they walk, which can minimize the risk of two people falling through the ice at once. If someone does go through, the other person should call 911 and not try to perform a rescue alone, he said.
"A lot of times what we see, unfortunately, is one person falls and the other person falls through the ice while they're trying to rescue that person," Landry said.
With files from Information Morning Moncton