23 Ice Fishers Rescued After Dramatic Georgian Bay Ordeal

Twenty-three ice fishers stepped onto Georgian Bay near Owen Sound on Sunday morning expecting a normal day of fishing. Instead, they got a harrowing lesson in survival and a front-row seat to the power of emergency response teamwork.

Kevin Fox and Alfie How noticed a small crack in the ice as they walked toward deeper water. Minutes later, that crack had split into a 10-foot gap separating their ice shelf from shore.

"I just started screaming: The ice is opening. The ice is opening," How said. The shelf they were standing on had become a floating island drifting toward open water.

The anglers tried running to find another way off, but the ice kept breaking into smaller pieces. Some fishers fell partially through, their legs plunging into freezing water. Others who tried to reach shore ended up nearly submerged, clinging to ice chunks in the waves.

"We just sat down as a group and said this could be the end," How recalled. The group huddled on the thickest patch of ice they could find, watching their piece of frozen ground get smaller as waves eroded the edges.

Two Ontario Provincial Police helicopters and an AirORNGE air ambulance responded. First, they swooped down to rescue the people already in the water. Then they made multiple trips back to the main group, taking the youngest fishers first.

Fox, who wore a float suit, stayed with the last group. He knew one minute in that water would be deadly, float suit or not. His friend How walked over 48,000 steps that day, racing across cracking ice looking for safety.

The rescue operation lasted more than two hours. Hundreds of people gathered on shore at Cobble Beach golf club, watching silhouettes of the stranded fishers drift further into open water while sirens blared and helicopters circled.

Why This Inspires

Fox and How made life-or-death decisions with clarity under pressure. When the group realized rescue helicopters had limited fuel and time, they didn't panic or fight. Instead, they calmly decided the youngest would go first, and those with float suits would wait.

That kind of grace in the face of fear shows the best of human nature. Emergency responders from six different counties dropped everything to coordinate a complex air rescue. Every single person made it home safe.

Everyone went home that night with minor injuries like hypothermia, but nobody needed hospitalization. The rescuers turned what could have been a tragedy into a story of teamwork, sacrifice, and skill.