Members of the Hamilton Township Fire Department were out on Rice Lake practising their annual ice water rescue training skills on Saturday, March 3, 2018.
Members from all three stations in Baltimore, Harwood and Bewdley spent the morning at the Harwood Fire Station for in class training before venturing onto the ice for the afternoon for practical training.
The stations for Harwood and Bewdley are the “go rescuers” with fire fighters from Baltimore helping out with shore based rescue and man power said District Chief Mike Robinson..
“Some people just don’t understand that year round there are several areas of Rice Lake that will be problem areas and even in the dead of winter you can run into the open spots.”
The area the firefighters were training at on Saturday was where the old railway used to cross Rice Lake and as Robinson stated, the area never really freezes.
“There are lots of people snowmobiling, fishing, ice-kiting along with ice races, there are a lot of people on the lake and we just have to be prepared for anything.”