PENTICTON – Emergency services converged on Tuc el nuit Lake in Oliver yesterday afternoon after a teenager went through the ice.

Oliver Volunteer Fire Department spokesperson Rob Graham says the fire department, Oliver RCMP and B.C. Ambulance were called to the scene at approximately 3:30 p.m., Dec. 17, after receiving a call of a person through the ice.

Graham says the rescue was difficult, as the department’s throw ropes weren’t quite long enough to reach the teenage male in the water.

“One of our crew got in the water with a drysuit, PFD and paddle board, but the ice made it very difficult to move," Graham says. “He’d move along okay in the water, then hit ice and slip.”

Graham says the ice was between three quarters and one inch thick.

Rescue personnel eventually used a canoe to get close enough to the boy to get a throw rope to him. Once close enough, they scooped him into the canoe while others pulled it to shore.

Graham says the boy was taken to hospital immediately, after being in the water for at least half an hour.

“The last word I heard was the boy had been released from hospital and is home with his family,” Graham says.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.