VIDEO: An urgent warning from Pittsburgh EMS: Stay off the ice.
Video from over the weekend shows people venturing out onto Pittsburgh’s frozen rivers, but public safety leaders say it’s never a good idea.
Ranging from a man evading police on the frozen Allegheny River to visitors at Point State Park, people just could not seem to stay off the ice.
“Over the weekend, we got several emergency alerts for people walking on the ice,” Pittsburgh EMS Chief Amera Gilchrist said.
Pittsburgh’s frozen rivers are attracting a lot of attention.
“I don’t think the immediate public understands the dangers of walking along the ice,” Gilchrist said. “It takes about four to five inches of solid ice to be able to hold an adult person and there’s no way to tell the thickness of the ice and which places the ice is thicker or thinner.”
Chief Gilchrist says one wrong step could send you into the water and under the ice.
“The water is moving, is actively moving, so it’s very easy to fall through the ice and get swept away,” Gilchrist said.
WPXI-TV NBC 11 Pittsburgh
