Don Sweeney
The Charlotte Observer
(TNS)
When Kristi Saine heard screaming from the icy water at Crystal Lake Park, the Colorado woman knew something terrible had happened.
“I started screaming to my daughter, call 911,” Saine told KDVR.
Four teens fell through thin ice into the frozen lake in Roxborough Park at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, West Metro Fire Rescue reported on Facebook.
Tori Longo, 15, was among park neighbors who rushed to the rescue of the two boys and two girls who called out, “Just help, call 911, we can’t breathe,” the station said.
“The kids were so cold, you know they were trying, they were fighting, but they weren’t moving,” Saine told KDVR.
Neighbors used hoses, ropes and extension cords to rescue three of the children, West Metro Fire Rescue said. “Whatever they could grab,” firefighters said.
A teenage boy who was farther out than the others had to be rescued by a dive team, the agency said. He was taken to a hospital.
His medical condition was not released, KCNC reported. Neighbors helped warm up the other rescued children.
“Their hands were purple, their feet were frozen,” Saine told the station. The kids mistakenly thought the ice on the lake was thick enough to be safe, firefighters said.
“Do not get on the ice, no matter if you think it’s solid enough to hold your weight,” Ronda Scholting, a spokesperson for West Metro Fire Rescue told KCNC. “Smaller bodies of water will freeze up more quickly. A lot of these neighborhood lakes, there’s a lot of freezing and thawing.”
Roxborough Park is a community of 9,000 people about 25 miles south of Denver.
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