Emergency responders in Branch County were able to conduct a safe broken ice rescue of two ice fishermen. Sheriff’s deputies report area residents William Lewis and Shawn Cronkhite went through thin ice on Silver Lake mid-afternoon yesterday. Silver Lake is just to the west of I-69, about a mile north of the Indiana state line.

Luckily for the two fishermen, the water depth where they went in was just at the point where they could stand up, but just barely. Lakeland township firefighters were able to pull the two to safety. But not before the two men had spent close to a half-hour in the frigid water. Both were treated on the scene for hypothermia but should recover from the ice bath.

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