Cold lessons learned the hard way

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

On Monday, Feb. 16, an 87-year-old Cicero resident Ron Liebert saved a man who fell through the ice on Morse Reservoir – twice!

Liebert, who has been ice fishing across the United States since 1965, told The Reporter this was the first time he’d seen anyone fall through the ice.

The incident

Liebert saw two men ice fishing on the reservoir, near the northwest part of the causeway, and decided to join them.

“This was at 5 o’clock in the afternoon,” Liebert said. “I thought, well, I’ll go out and try to get in an hour and a half of fishing right at the prime time, and I’ll go over and fish with them.”

Liebert went home to get his gear and tell his wife, Darlene, that he’d be out on the ice with two other fishermen.

“I got over there and started fishing with those guys,” Liebert said. “The ice had been about 12 to 13 inches, but now it was like 9 to 10 inches. So it’s still plenty safe. We started fishing and talking.”

One of the men Liebert was fishing with was retired. The other was younger.

“We fished till about seven o’clock,” Liebert said. “We started packing up. The youngest guy got his stuff packed up before us, so he went back across the way they came. About five minutes later, the older guy and I were starting to cross, walking side by side. The guy standing on the shore says, ‘Get apart, you guys. The ice is going up and down and bubbles are coming up through the holes.’ So we got apart, and I was in front of this guy.”

As Liebert got to shore, he heard, “Oh my gosh, he went through!”

Looking back, he saw the man he had been walking with had fallen through the ice and was in the water up to his shoulders, holding on to the edge with both arms.

According to Liebert, the younger man started to panic and asked if they should call the fire department.

“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, we got to get him out of there,’” Liebert said. “I figured it’s going to take time for the fire department to take a call and come, and then how are they going to go about rescuing him? You can’t put in a boat, you know, it’s all frozen over. And so I said, ‘I’ll get it.’”

Liebert went back on the ice, armed with a carbide-tipped walking stick for balance.

“I walked out so that I could get this [walking stick] out to the guy and have him grab hold of that,” Liebert said. “I tried to pull him up on the ice. He got his legs up and got laid out, but he was still heavy for me to pull, and I kept backing up. All the time I’m doing this, this guy on the shore is saying, ‘Ron, get in here. You’re going to go through, too.’”

Liebert said he wasn’t listening, focused instead on trying to help this fisherman out of the water.

When the fisherman got out of the ice hole, Liebert told him to stay on his stomach and crawl several feet before trying to stand up. The man did just that.

“Then I turned around, and I walked back to the shore, no problem,” Liebert said. “I get to the shore, and the guy says, ‘Oh my gosh, he went through again!’ Now he’s about 15 feet from where he was before, so I didn’t have to go out as far, but still, he was out there pretty far, you know.”

Liebert went back on the ice again to help the fisherman out of a second ice hole.

“He looked like he was ready to give up,” Liebert said. “I thought, ‘Boy, if he goes under, he’ll never come back up.’”

This time he was in the water up to his neck.

After helping the man out of the second ice hole, Liebert told him to not stand up again, but rather to crawl all the way back to shore on his stomach.

This time, both made it back to shore.

Liebert stayed with him while his friend went to get his truck to get the victim inside to warm up. The man did not want to go to a hospital.

Liebert and the victim had exchanged phone numbers while fishing together, but that man lost his phone in the reservoir.

Liebert later called the Cicero Police Department in case they received calls about holes in the ice. He said he did not want them to think someone was missing.

The lessons

Liebert told The Reporter he shared his story as a cautionary tale and an opportunity to discuss safety.

“Anything below four inches thick is considered unsafe,” Liebert said. “All the charts say that these figures of what’s safe is based on clear, solid ice. The only time you have clear, solid ice is probably the first week or so that the ice starts to form. Right now, you can’t see through the ice. It’s cloudy, unless there’s water on top, then you might be able to see through it. But even me, as experienced as I’ve been, I always just disregarded that based on clear ice. Well, that was a mistake because what happened last Monday was exactly what could happen.”

When asked what he will do differently when ice fishing next year, Liebert said he’s going to be far more cautious.

Liebert owns an ice fishing suit, the jacket of which is also a floatation device. He was not wearing that last Monday, but told The Reporter he will wear it religiously now.

Another piece of safety equipment Liebert did not have with him is a set of retractable ice safety spikes. That is a pair of spikes that fit together like a short set of handlebars you hang around your neck. Liebert said he’s never going on the ice without those again.

In a world of increasing division and distrust, this newspaper was pleased to share a story about someone helping a stranger he’d met only 90 minutes earlier. That seems rarer than it should be these days.

“Well, that may be the case, but I’m not trying to be a hero,” Liebert said. “I’m just trying to be a good citizen.”

---

Ice, ice, safety

At the request of The Reporter, Cicero Police Chief Jeff Rednour shared the following ice safety information:

We have had a lot of ice fishermen on the reservoir the past few weeks when it was bitterly cold and the ice got thick. They seemed to congregate around the bridge on Jackson Street where there is a current flowing south. To my knowledge, we haven’t had an ice rescue in several years from a fisherman falling through, until Monday [Feb. 16].

Things people should try to look for before going out on ice:

• They should test the ice for thickness; a four-inch minimum is recommended.
• Don’t go around open water areas.
• Stay away from where a creek or another body of water enters with the reservoir.
• Don’t go on the ice alone; have a partner. If that’s not possible, make sure you tell someone you are going on the ice and where you will be on the ice.
• Take a personal floatation device.
• Use common sense. If the temperature has been above freezing for a while, if there is water standing on top of the ice, or if there are open water spots, don’t go on the ice!

Cicero Public Safety does not monitor the conditions of the ice.