Published 9:18 am Saturday, October 31, 2026 By Jill Westerman Northern News Services The first lake ice of the fall season might look inviting to walk on, but Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt has a message for you: “Stay off the ice.” Children have already been venturing onto Williamson Lake, where newly-formed ice can disappear as quickly as it develops, Wyatt said. “We had kids on the ice that we were having to get off the ice. Today it was a little bit warmer. There’s moisture in the air, and a lot of that ice has turned back into water again,” Wyatt said recently. His biggest concern is the lake’s location in the centre of the hamlet, surrounded by the community and across the street from a school. Early ice can become two or three inches thick, giving people confidence to walk on it, but that confidence can be misplaced when temperatures change, Wyatt said. “It can melt just as quickly as it can get harder,” he said. “You can walk out on that ice, and all of a sudden the ice cracks, and you’ve got kids in the water.” The fire chief said conditions remain too mild for children to venture onto the lake as October draws toward its end. “Years back, by now we would have had snow, but it seems to be getting warmer in the fall every year,” he said. “So definitely too early for kids to be on the ice.” Williamson Lake is a familiar gathering place throughout the year. It hosts boat races, the community’s annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display and activities on the ice later in the season. “In the springtime, there are a couple of skating rinks on it, so it’s kind of a community lake,” Wyatt said. “It’s used for hockey in the spring. We do an Easter egg hunt on that lake at Easter.” For now, however, he wants children to keep off of it and parents to reinforce that message. During his 11 years in the community, Wyatt said no children have fallen through the ice on Williamson Lake. “That doesn’t mean it can’t happen,” he said. There have been other incidents on ice surfaces, however. A loader went through the lake ice several years ago, and Wyatt also described incidents involving all-terrain vehicles breaking through ice while travelling on the land. Getting out of the water can be difficult when the surrounding ice is thin, he advised. “As you reach up and try to pull yourself back up, that ice is going to continue to break,” he said. “The water’s very cold, so you don’t have a whole lot of time.” Wyatt said he primarily shares safety messages through community Facebook posts. He said he would also contact school principals to ask them to inform students of the hazards of thin ice. For a lake so close to homes and a school, his immediate concern is preventing a familiar place from becoming the scene of an emergency. “I’m just hoping that kids learn to stay off the ice.” For more ice safety information, visit: www.smartice.org or www.siku.org.
Stay off to stay safe Rankin Inlet fire chief warns of fragile ice
