WEYMOUTH, Mass. --
A Weymouth man who fell through thin ice on a neighborhood pond and nearly drowned after spending 20 minutes in the frigid water said he will never venture out onto frozen water again.
Jason Dubois, 27, said Monday he knows he's lucky to be alive after rescuers pulled him from Whitman Pond early Sunday. He fell through the ice near Lakeshore Drive as he walked home from a friend's house about 2 a.m.
He said while he was in the water he tried to focus on one thing.
"Just keep myself afloat until someone saves me. I didn't want to die. I'm 27. I was scared," Dubois said.
He said he thought the pond was safe enough to cut across it.
"I figured it would be safe enough. People out there skating on that side and that side during the day. So I figured ... it was safe until I hit about 100 feet from shore," Dubois said.
He said he realized firefighters and neighbors who rescued him were heroic, given how dangerous the pond is.
"Thanks for the fire department for saving my life and everything. That pond takes a lot of bodies and I didn't want to be the next one to go under and die," Dubois said.
Currents in the pond weakened the ice, fire officials said. The said they perform pond rescues at least once a year.
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