BETHEL — A pair of passers-by helped rescue two young children who fell through thin ice in Western Alaska.
Cory LePore Sr. last week heard screams coming from the slough that runs near his Bethel home, he told KYUK-AM.
"I happen to look over and there was a young lady and a small boy sitting in the middle of the slough, waist deep in the water," LePore said.
LePore went over to the children and examined the ice. The freezing water was running fast underneath the ice. He didn’t know how deep it was, so he instructed the children to get to a patch of ground nearby, he said.
"So I instructed them to roll and stand on some solid ground, and stand and wait," LePore said.
LePore was running to his truck to grab a pallet when saw the girl falling back into the water, but then Joseph Joekay ran from a nearby convenience store to help.
“Right then," LePore said, "Joseph took off his shoes, socks, and pulled up his sweat pants and made a beeline for the young lady.”
Joekay dashed into the water and carried the girl on his back.
"That poor girl, she was the first one I brought up, and I slipped," Joekay said.
Joekay held the girl up as the water went up to his neck. He made it to stable land and went back for the boy.
An ambulance crew responded, but both men said the children seemed fine after their ordeal.
Mark Leary, a volunteer with Bethel Search and Rescue, said parents need to keep their children off the ice, especially when there are warm periods in between cold ones.