A quick thinking maintenance worker on the Rideau Canal helped rescue a woman who fell through the ice, on Sunday.
Just an arm’s length from the Skateway, two women from Toronto fell through the ice , one got stuck, and had to be rescued.
Cory Legue was working nearby when a passerby alerted him to the emergency.
"When I got there she was in the water up to her waist,” says Legue. "I just dove right into the water and started feeling to get her foot out.”
Unable to pull out her leg, and with hands too frozen to undo her skate, Legue found someone with a knife he used to cut the laces.
The incident happened in an area where the ice is covered by about 10cm of snow.
Legue, who usually drives a tractor on the canal for Capital Property Guardians, says snow covered ice on the Skateway is dangerous. Snow acts as an insulator, making the ice surface weak.
Some people are calling for signs or barriers to let visitors know where it is safe to skate.
Legue says he was too cold to stop and get the woman’s name. He says paramedics told him she would be fine, and that she did not require a visit to the hospital.
