A Richfield Springs man drowned Saturday after falling through the ice on Basswood Pond in the town of Burlington.
According to a media release from the Department of Environmental Conservation, someone walking his dog called 911 Saturday afternoon after seeing two ice fishermen fall through the ice on Basswood Pond. Forest Ranger Nate Laymon was at the Jacobs Road trailhead one minute away from the pond and responded to the scene. Laymon saw one of the men treading water, but lost sight of the other. He put on his wetsuit and entered the ice, which was about an inch thick, and crawled toward the 42-year-old Richfield Springs resident. He was able to use a throw bag to help the person out of the water and transferred him to a sled. The person who called in the emergency helped pull the sled to shore.
In a video explaining the rescue, Laymon said shortly after the person was brought to shore, the Edmeston Fire Department chief and department showed up to help with the rescue. The person who was rescued was suffering from hypothermia and was placed in the truck to start warming. Laymon said he radioed to the dispatchers he was able to get one person out and was headed back to the water for the second person. He was tethered to a rope by the Edmeston Fire Department and went back to the water. He scanned the water and located the second person, a 41-year-old man from Richfield Springs, who was the brother of the other person, by his red, white and black reflective Polaris snowmobile coat.
“It took a couple of attempts, but I was trying to reach down and grab his coat, and I don’t have the longest arms, so eventually I kind of made a big push, dipped my head under and put my shoulders down and I got a hold of the guy and brought him up to the surface,” he said. “Then it was just trying to get him out and over the ice shelf was the big problem. At that point I was getting tired. There was a State Police diver who was in the water with his gear trying to work his way to me and eventually a Schuyler Lake volunteer fireman in an ice suit came out and he helped me and we put a flotation device around him.”
Once the person was out of the water he was hooked up to a CPR machine and transferred by ambulance to Bassett Hospital for treatment, Laymon said. The victim was declared deceased by the hospital later that night, the release said. The other person was treated and released from the hospital.
DEC officials refused to release the names of the men.
Laymon said between 20 and 30 personnel were on the scene. The media release said in addition to Edmeston and Schuyler Lake fire departments, the Fly Creek and West Edmeston fire departments were on the scene as well as State Police and the Otsego County Emergency services.
Laymon said everyone at the scene did a “fantastic job.”
“We saved one and gave the other one a fighting chance,” he said.
Laymon also cautioned people to know the conditions of ice before venturing out on it.