“There’s really no ice outside we would qualify as safe, especially this winter,’’ said Ted Joubert, fire chief in Plainville. “It’s just not worth the risk.’’
Authorities said they hoped the weekend’s accidents would keep people away from water that may appear to be frozen solid but could be unstable from the fluctuating temperatures in recent weeks. December was the second warmest on record, and January temperatures have run well above normal.
“Even when we’ve had cold, it hasn’t been sustained,’’ said Don McCasland, program director at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory.
On Saturday, a 27-year-old man died after falling through the ice while snowmobiling with friends on a pond in Dudley, a Central Massachusetts town on the Connecticut border.
Richard Redfield had been in the water at least 15 minutes before he was pulled out by rescuers, officials said.
On Sunday afternoon, a 3-year-old boy and his parents fell through the ice on an Arlington pond. Firefighters reached the family quickly, at times swimming through the water when the ice gave way, and pulled them back to shore on rescue sleds. All are expected to be fine.
Yet for safety officials, the circumstances of the accident - the family was far from shore, after dark, on a large, partially frozen pond - crystallized the risks of thin ice and how they are too often taken lightly.
“I would say it was a very bad decision on their part to be out there,’’ said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Bailey of Arlington.
Safety officials said the fluctuating temperatures have created a precarious situation in which the ice may appear strong near the shore, but weakens as water deepens. A number of police departments have posted advisories on their websites and made a point of shooing children off popular skating areas that are usually frozen solid this time of year.
