Story Six: Falling Through Broken Ice

It was December 4, 2010 when Kole Devisscher happened to be driving by the Red River in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As he was driving by a particular expanse of ice that formed over the water, he noticed a blue jacket lying on the ice. His instincts had told him that there was something off, so he decided to stop his car to take a closer look.

Thinking Fast

His instincts were right, there was a 10-year old boy struggling to get out of the water. He had fallen in, and due to the slippery ice, and the fact that his fingers were already turning blue from the cold, plus the pull of the water below him, he couldn’t get out. Kole decided his best option was to pull the boy out of the water by towing him out using a rope. Kole also knew that he himself could just as easily fall in the water, saying, “I was just listening for… any cracks or anything just be[ing] careful not to, to get as close as I had to.”