GARDNER, Wis. -- Eight people needed to be rescued after being stranded on the ice in open water Thursday morning.
Six people were plucked from the ice on Green Bay just off of Fox Lane in the Town of Gardner.
Another two were rescued near Bayshore Road at Shoemaker Point.
Initially, however, authorities didn't know how many people were stuck out on the ice.
So Eagle III and the Coast Guard were called in to help search for those stranded.
"Upon their visuals we ended up finding multiple groups, ATVs snowmobiles, people walking on the ice and that's when we called in additional resources," said Brussels-Union-Gardner Fire Dept. Chief Curt Vandertie.
Those additional resources included local firefighters in special cold water gear with ropes and boats.
This group was able to pull six people to safety just off of Fox Lane.
Gerry Holbach and his wife were two of those rescued.
"I was willing to spend the night in the ice shanty. I have a lot of wood out there. We just would have been a little hungry. We still don't know if it would have froze back up again right away," said Gerry Holbach, who was rescued from the ice.
A couple miles south of Fox Lane, just off Bayshore Road at Shoemaker Point, a Coast Guard air boat pulled up and rescued two more men.
"This was probably one of our most complex, difficult ice rescues that we've had to perform in quite some time. Whenever you have multiple groups spanning miles of shoreline that's when you need additional resources," said Vandertie.
In all eight people were taken off the ice.
All of whom were shocked to learn they had been stranded.
"We started heading towards shore, we saw all the open water and we went as far as we could towards sturgeon bay and it's just too far open. 58:27//58:51 it's just the way it is, it just happens, part of fishing," said Holbach.
While those stranded may consider their situation just part of fishing, authorities take this seriously and they're just pleased the rescue operation ran smoothly and no one was hurt.
Republished with permission of WBAY-TV.
