Capital City Fire/ Rescue used all-terrain vehicles to perform a Christmas Eve rescue on the icy surface of Mendenhall Lake.
CCFR helped a man who slipped on the frozen lake ice at approximately 12:45 p.m. on Saturday. According to Assistant Fire Chief Travis Mead, the man suffered non-life-threatening injuries and CCFR had to use ATVs and a rescue sled to reach the injured man who was located about a half a mile from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.
“They were able to treat and transport this person back to the visitor’s center where he was then transferred to an ambulance and continued care and then transferred to the hospital,” Mead said.
According to Mead, crews arrived on the scene shortly after 1 p.m. and the rescue in total took about two hours. Chief Sam Russell was in charge and oversaw CCFR’s C shift performing the rescue, which consists of paramedics, emergency medical technicians and firefighters.
On Saturday, in a post on CCFR’s Facebook page, the injured man’s wife thanked CCFR for their help and said her husband was being medevaced to Seattle for further medical treatment.
Mead said that while this time of year the ice might be thick enough to support people’s weight, ice is still never safe, so everyone should always be prepared and stay aware.
“Due to the time that it takes to perform a rescue in the environment in Juneau, it’s important that people are prepared by taking a phone, leave a plan with something letting them know where they’re going but alert the 911 system as soon as they know they’re in trouble because it takes us a while to get everything in place before a rescue,” Mead said.
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
