'No doubt' two anglers saved Jamestown man's life, sheriff says

Jan. 9—JAMESTOWN — The two anglers who saved a snowmobiler who went through the ice Monday, Jan. 8, on Jamestown Reservoir are heroes, according to Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser.

"They saved his life, no doubt," Kaiser said.

Skylar Schmeichel, 18, Jamestown, and Shane Weiss, 22, Wimbledon, North Dakota, were on the west side of Jamestown Reservoir about 4 miles north of Jamestown when they heard a snowmobile and the ice cracking, Kaiser said in a news release Monday. They saw someone swimming and yelling in the distance, called 911 and ran to Cody Deese, 31 or 32, Jamestown.

Schmeichel and Weiss were able to make a rope with their jackets to pull Deese from the water.

"That's a definite definition of a hero right there is those two going out on thin ice to rescue him," Kaiser said. " ... Without those guys there, I don't think Cody would have had a chance. They definitely saved the day on that one and to risk themselves, that was something."

Schmeichel said his mother told him she didn't want him to be on the ice. He said he wanted to go ice fishing on Monday because it was something he really wanted to do.

Weiss said he heard a snowmobile moving while he was drilling a hole in the ice on the west side of Jamestown Reservoir.

"All of a sudden, I didn't hear nothing but the faint cry of something, and I looked over and I thought I seen him swimming, so we just kind of basically dropped what we were doing and everything and ran over there," he said.

Schmeichel and Weiss ran more than 1,000 yards to help Deese, who had gone through the ice closer to the east side of Jamestown Reservoir.

"We seen him up on the water and he was yelling for help so we sprinted over there and I called 911 as I was going over there," Schmeichel said.

Schmeichel said Deese had attempted to crawl out of the water multiple times before the two could get to him. He said it took about 10 minutes to get to Deese.

The two didn't have a rope and couldn't try to pull Deese out right away because they would have fallen in as well, Schmeichel said. So Schmeichel and Weiss took their coats off and tied them together to make a 5-foot rope.

Schmeichel said Weiss belly crawled to Deese and tied the makeshift rope to the snowmobiler's harness or snowpants.

"Shane was about 7 feet away I'd say from the guy and we kept pulling and pulling and he kept breaking through and breaking through (the ice)," Schmeichel said.

Weiss was lying on the ground closest to Deese. Schmeichel grabbed Weiss' legs and the two pulled Deese as he kept falling through thin ice.

"We would be laying down trying not to make a big pressure point on the ice," Schmeichel said, "but we also had to be spaced apart so we wouldn't fall in ourselves because it was a pretty open circle of a place that was not very good ice. It was an inch or no more than 2 inches thick."

Weiss said there was one point where he was scared of falling through the ice while trying to pull Deese.

"Every time he would put his arms and shoulders on the ice to try to come up, it would shatter underneath you," he said. "It was a weird feeling."

"The ice was bowing so hard that there was so much water on it so we couldn't grip and we were afraid of falling through so we switched again," Schmeichel said. "I tried grabbing ... this guy's arms and Shane kept grabbing me and we still couldn't get him out of the water."

Schmeichel estimated the two pulled Deese about 20 feet before finding a more stable spot on the ice.

"The guy they pulled out was probably 300 pounds," Kaiser said. "Those two other guys, Skylar and Shane, are probably both soaking wet, about 150 pounds each maybe."

After getting Deese out of the water, the two took his sweatshirt off and Schmeichel gave him a heated jacket. The three were going to walk back to the portable tent they were using while ice fishing on the west side of the reservoir where there was a heater.

First responders made it to the east side of the reservoir where Deese was taken by Jamestown Area Ambulance to the Jamestown Regional Medical Center where he declined care and left.

Schmeichel said he is glad everyone was safe.

Kaiser said there are open spots of water on the Jamestown Reservoir where the Canada geese were.

"There's some just south of the island, right by the island, right across from it and then up where this guy went in," he said. "There's just been open spots all the way up to about 5-mile corner."

He said the open water started to freeze over and then the Jamestown area received a little snow earlier this week.

"You can't really tell or if you haven't been watching where the open water has been, you don't know if you are on 14 inches of ice or an inch," Kaiser said. "Identically what happened here is you get a snowmobiler who runs his snowmobile through there, thinks he's on good ice, and he was on an inch of ice."

He said going on the ice is at your own risk.

"We are not going to go out and mark all the spots that we see," Kaiser said. " ... This year, it's kind of dangerous to be out there. If you don't know where you are going, it's dangerous."

If fishermen plan to ice fish, they should tell someone where they are going,

Kaiser told The Jamestown Sun in December

.

"You get an ice fisherman that goes out and fishes and doesn't tell anybody where they are going and then we are searching everywhere," Kaiser said. "Usually, we don't know because they didn't come home and then it's dark out."

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According to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department's website, individuals can follow these steps to get out of the water if they fall through ice:

* Try not to panic.

* Turn toward the direction you came from. The safest place to pull yourself back up on the ice is the last place you stepped before going through the ice.

* Place your hands and arms on the unbroken surface of ice.

* Work your way up by kicking your feet.

* Use ice picks to assist in pulling yourself onto the ice.

* Once you are lying on the ice, roll away from the weak or broken ice. Don't attempt to stand up.

Individuals can follow these steps from the Game and Fish Department's website if a companion falls in:

* Stay calm and do not run to help the victim. You can go from rescuer to victim.

* Reach the victim with a long pole, board, robe, blanket or cables.

* Throw the victim a life jacket, empty water jug or other buoyant object.

* Build a human chain where rescuers lie on the ice with each person grasping the feet of the person in front.

Treat the hypothermia victim by removing wet clothing and replacing it with dry clothing and get medical assistance.