By Amanda Marrazzo
and Andrea L. Brown
Special to the Tribune

The recent rescue of four children from a retention pond in Third Lake and no green flag from the park district signaling the OK to skate on Grays Lake should send a strong message to Lake County residents about treading on thin ice.

“For the entire winter, the ice has been off limits for skaters,” said Grayslake Fire Protection Battalion Chief Jim Weidman. “Using that as a gauge, it hasn’t really gotten cold enough to support the weight of one individual, let alone four or five.”

But Weidman cautions people against venturing out on any ice-covered water. On Sunday, a McHenry Township man playing hockey with his son on a pond behind his home in Johnsburg fell through the ice and later died.

“The weather is still warm and warming up,” Weidman said. “You have to be respectful of the ice and the water you live around. It’s not safe to be on the ice.”

Twice this month Grayslake Fire Protection District personnel were called about rescues, including on Feb. 6 when a man got in trouble while attempting to rescue his dog on Gages Lake. The man tried to paddle out in a kayak about 50 feet away from shore, when the boat took on water, Weidman said.

On Feb. 16, four children fell through the ice into about 3 feet of water while they were walking on a small retention pond in the Mariners Cove subdivision in Third Lake. In that case a neighbor, Robert George, reached the boys first.

George, 40, has lived across from the pond in with his wife and three young daughters for the last 6 1/2 years. He said the subdivision residents have always had rules that kids not be allowed on the ice in the winter unless an adult checked it for safety first. But on Feb.16, Jake Corn, 9, and three of his young friends were walking on the pond.

George’s daughter saw the kids from the window of her upstairs bedroom and screamed that they fell through the ice. George bolted out of the house and across the road and rescued Corn. The other three were already safe out of the water.

All survived, but George is still bruised—and shaken.

“Everyday I walk out of my house and I see where the ice is all broken up,” George said, recalling the path of ice he had to break up with his arms as he waded through the frigid water to reach the screaming child.

“I know it could have been a lot worse and I’m just glad that it wasn’t,” he said Monday.

He said it was his parent’s instinct that kicked in, adding, “I hope someone would do it if my kids were in trouble.”