A Canadian village has been fined $75,000 in connection with the death of a firefighter who perished during ice water rescue training in 2010.
The Corporation of the Village of Point Edward was fined after investgators determined while there was rescue equipment in one of the fire trucks parked on shore during the exercise, there was no equipment readily available to pull the firefighter to shore, according to ontario.ca.
On Jan. 30, 2010, members of the village's paid volunteer fire department were participating in ice water rescue training. After doing swimming and floating exercises, they were instructed to swim out to a moving sheet of ice, climb it, and ride it down the lake, the paper reported.
Some of them could not climb the ice floe and attempted to swim back to shore. One was unable to climb onto shore, was pushed by the ice floe under its surface.
He was trapped under the ice floe for about four minutes. He died due to being trapped in the icy water, Division of Labour investigators determined.
The Corporation of the Village of Point Edward pleaded guilty as an employer to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that adequate rescue equipment was available for the ice water rescue training exercise.
The trial against an individual in connection with the incident is expected to get underway later this spring.
