SOLDIER POND, Maine — Members of the Fort Kent Volunteer Fire Department were called in late Tuesday night to assist in the removal of a vehicle that ended up on a frozen northern Maine pond.
According to Ed Endee, Fort Kent’s fire chief, the ice on Soldier Pond, about 10-miles south of Fort Kent, was thick enough to support the weight of the SUV, but had become “compromised,” after the vehicle apparently slid down an embankment near the bridge over the pond.
The vehicle’s four occupants were able to get out and off the ice on their own and walked to a nearby residence, Endee said, adding they were transported by ambulance to Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent.
No information was available Wednesday morning on the driver or passengers’ identities or their conditions.
“We were called in after the fact,” Endee said. “For the wrecker to hook onto the car they had to get out on the ice and the ice appeared unsafe.”
A Maine State Police trooper also was on the scene. Calls for information to the Houlton barracks were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Fort Kent firefighters created a path to the stranded vehicle using ladders placed on the ice and attached a safety harness and line on to Richard “Dicky” Daigle, owner of Twins Service Station who then crawled out on the ladders to the SUV.
On Wednesday morning, Daigle said the ice was broken up and there was open water behind the vehicle when he arrived after midnight with his flat-bed wrecker truck.
“I was concerned about dropping chains in the water or falling in the water myself,” he said. “But we called the fire department and it was nice to have that bunch of guys there.”
Once attached to the wrecker, the SUV was winched back to shore and up the embankment, Daigle said, adding this was not the first time he’s hauled a vehicle from an icy pond or lake.
“I was not too nervous being out on that ice,” he said. “Things like this come with the territory — adventure is what they call that.”
