FOUNTAIN — A man who spent more than 90 minutes under the ice of a Fountain pond was located by divers Saturday and rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead.
Firefighters were called to a pond near Interstate 25 and Mesa Ridge Parkway just after noon when a 911 caller reported that a man had plunged through the ice while chasing his runaway dog.
“If he would have had a leash on his dog, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Fountain Fire Chief Darin Anstine.
The man reached the dog and managed to throw the pit bull onto the shore before going under, Anstine said.
In water that cold, drowning victims can be revived after much as much as two hours under the ice, he said.
The Fountain Fire Department called in rescue divers from Colorado Springs in a frantic search of the murky 39-degree water. Altogether, about 28 firefighters responded.
Anstine said the water below the ice was so murky that divers had to feel their way along the bottom to find the man, who wasn’t immediately identified.
The water was about 12 feet deep where he was found, roughly 20 feet from shore, Anstine said.
After the man was located, he was pulled to the shore, where medics began efforts to revive him. The dog was picked up by a loved one, Anstine said.
The Gazette
