Excavator pulled quickly from Paugus Bay after falling through ice | Courts & Cops | laconiadailysun.com

LACONIA — As co-owner of Marine Solutions, Tim McDonald has retrieved all kinds of equipment that has fallen through the ice. He’s picked up pick-up trucks, plucked planes, snatched snowmobiles and, as of Saturday, extracted an excavator.

The excavator, a 10,000-pound Kubota HX040, fell through the ice sometime last week, McDonald said, and he was asked to help retrieve it first thing on Friday morning.

Laconia Fire Chief Tim Joubert said his department was called to respond to the scene on Saturday morning. However, the firefighters left once they realized that there was no emergency.

McDonald said he didn’t know how the excavator ended up on top of the ice before it fell through, just that his company was hired to remove it.

Every recovery has its own peculiarities and challenges, he said, likening it to a “giant jigsaw puzzle.”

“This puzzle was a toughie,” McDonald said. The machine was in Lake Winnipesaukee's Paugus Bay, off Hilliard Road, and was in about 10 feet of water, with another two feet of thick mud underneath.

“And it was completely on its back. When we arrived on site all we could see was an [excavator] arm sticking out of the ice,” McDonald said.

How does one remove an excavator out of the ice?

“Very carefully," McDonald responded, only half-jokingly.

He said the successful extraction was possible thanks to help from Rusty’s Towing, which had what McDonald called a “portable crane” that provided a powerful lift to the job. But before they could hook up the crane, McDonald had to clear away enough ice to access the excavator, then use timbers to create a temporary ramp up onto the firm ice. McDonald said he used a couple of winches and, going “a quarter of an inch at a time,” persuaded the excavator to exit the lake.

Getting the machine onto firm ice was only half of the battle, he said. From there, the salvage operation involved plotting a course to shore, then drilling holes to ensure solid ice along the way.

“We got the call early Friday morning,” McDonald said. A call of this type of complexity would normally be a four-day job, he said, but he managed to finish, including by soaking up any leaked fluids that rose to the surface of the water, by Saturday evening.

“The nature of what was in the water, and its proximity to Laconia’s drinking water, it took a new level of precedence.”

McDonald said while he sees the worst of possible outcomes, he still encourages people to explore the natural world, including frozen water bodies.

“I’m a huge proponent for the wilderness of New Hampshire and New England,” McDonald said. “Don’t stay off the ice, by all means go out there and explore, but do it safely. Make sure you know the ice you’re on and take measured risks.

"You can have a lot of fun, there’s a lot to do and see in the Lakes Region and we want to make sure people keep doing it.”

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