Kids rescued from icy Colorado lake; condition of 1 young teen unclear

Crystal Lake on Tuesday, where four children fell in after the ice broke free underneath them, in Roxborough Park, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. (West Metro Fire Rescue)

A rescue dive team pulled a boy out of an icy Colorado lake and he was flown to a hospital after he and three other children fell through the thin frozen surface Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Neighbors were able to come to the aid of the three others and get them out to safety using garden hoses, extension cords and other items.

West Metro Fire Rescue in Lakewood, Colorado, said the three children were doing fine, but the condition of the fourth child, described as a young teen, was still not known. Ronda Scholting, a spokesperson for the fire rescue agency, said the boy was taken to the closest medical center, UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital, and was then flown Tuesday night to Children's Hospital Colorado "for continued care."

The first 911 call on the incident came in shortly before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Scholting said.

Kristi Saine, who lives in a home that borders the lake, told KUSA-TV in Denver that she and her daughter were coming back from basketball practice when they were alerted to the kids in distress. "When we pulled into the driveway and opened the doors, we heard screaming. I jumped up on the fence, and I could see them in the water, all four of them screaming," she said.

Saine's daughter, Tori Longo, called 911. "I was talking to [the operator] the whole time," Tori said. "They were like, 'Don't let anybody [on] the ice!'"

The small group of two girls and two boys ventured out on the icy Crystal Lake in Roxborough Park, a Denver suburb in Douglas County, after school, but the ice was too thin to support their weight and they broke through.

Saine and other neighbors who heard the commotion quickly grabbed ropes, blankets, cords, anything they could find, to toss out to the kids. They managed to pull them out of the freezing water soon after and the fourth child was located about an hour later, according to authorities.

A close-up of some of the hoses and rope neighbors used to rescue three children from an icy Crystal Lake on Tuesday in Roxborough Park, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. (West Metro Fire Rescue)

Saine then took the three youths to her home, where they got out of their heavy, wet clothes and took warm showers.

The first three rescued "were closer to the shore and [could be] pulled out by neighbors," the emergency agency said. Authorities noted that the lake is shallow on the shoreline but then "quickly drops off a shelf to 7 to 8 feet."

Scholting said the kids thought the ice was solid enough to hold their weight, but the spot where they fell in was "about an inch thick."

"On this lake, we know that by looking at conditions - it had recently thawed and then refroze," she told AccuWeather.

Scholting warned people not to get on the ice, "no matter what."

"You never know how thick or strong it is," Scholting said. "Smaller bodies of water freeze and thaw more quickly, especially along Colorado's Front Range. We have many warm days in the fall/winter, so ice is continually freezing, thawing and refreezing, which makes it unstable."

In the Colorado's smaller neighborhood lakes, she explained, "the water is constantly moving, with drainage coming in from the streets surrounding the lake. So, even though there may be ice on the surface, the water below could be moving - which makes it highly likely the ice is not stable."

Although temperatures started off right around freezing Tuesday in the Denver area, they quickly climbed into the 40s by mid-morning and then into the lower 50s by the early afternoon, according to AccuWeather data. The high temperature in Roxborough Park was 52 degrees Fahrenheit.

Experts always urge people to know the risks before venturing out on an icy pond or lake, especially knowing that there is no such thing as "100 percent safe ice." They said frozen bodies of water can be very dangerous if they aren't at least 4 inches thick - enough to support an average-sized person on foot. There are also other factors to consider like external temperature over a period of time and on a particular day, snow coverage and the size of the lake.

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