OTTAWA—The Recorder has learned that two Western Manitoulin men will receive Canadian Bravery Decoration awards from the Governor General of Canada.
The awards are being presented to Brian Dittmar and Steve Prior for their efforts in saving an Evansville resident who had plunged into the frigid waters of Julia Bay in 2017.
In May 2017, Gore Bay council had given its approval to nominate the men for the award after taking part in the ice rescue of Evansville resident Kirk Longmuir.
“If it wasn’t for the response and efforts of these men, the man who was rescued would not be here today,” explained Ron Lane, then-mayor of the Town of Gore Bay in the May 20, 2017 edition of the Manitoulin West Recorder. He noted he had contacted the staff sergeant detachment commander of the Manitoulin detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police and Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Mantha for suggestions as to what award the men could be nominated for. After further research, it was discovered that there is a Governor General’s Award for bravery, for saving the life of another person.
Mr. Longmuir was rescued from the frigid waters of Julia Bay on April 1, 2017 after his snowmobile broke through the ice.
Both Mr. Dittmar and Mr. Prior will be receiving the Canadian Bravery Decoration by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, at a ceremony to be held at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Thursday, April 25, 2019.
Mr. Dittmar, a Gore Bay resident who is an avid snowmobiler, was contacted by Lisa Addison when she saw a four-wheeler carrying two people break through the ice just after 1 pm on while fishing out on Julia Bay. She heard their screams as their machine crashed through the ice, leaving them both in the icy cold waters.
Mr. Dittmar explained that Ms. Addison first called 911 to report what she had just witnessed on the other side of the bay, then called him. Mr. Dittmar still had his two snowmobiles loaded on his trailer from a recent trek to points north and so, heeding the call, took a quick inventory of what he might need, including a roof rake—the longest, lightest instrument he could find on short notice—and headed in the general direction of where he thought the incident had occurred, parking along the Barrie Island causeway and unloading one of the machines. Mr. Dittmar said that he left the trailer open and with a key in the ignition of the other snowmobile in case a fellow rescuer should come and assist.
In the meantime, Mr. Dittmar’s wife called another West End resident, Wendell Clarke, to inform him of the situation and also dispatch him to the scene.
“I headed out to where I roughly thought it happened,” Mr. Dittmar explained at the time. At the same time, Julia Bay resident Mr. Prior showed up with his ATV, also ready to help. The pair saw no sign of anyone, just “debris” as Mr. Dittmar described it—mittens and helmets.
Mr. Prior had brought with him a rope, about 15 feet long, which the two men used to tie off on one another. Mr. Prior stayed farther back while Mr. Dittmar inched ever closer to the hole where the debris lay, following footsteps that came from the area. He realized that one of the helmets had been obviously abandoned, indicating someone had made it to shore, but the other helmet bobbed in the water and, when he tapped it with the edge of the roof rake, it moved ever so slightly. “It was him and he was face-up,” Mr. Dittmar said of the discovery. “His mouth or maybe just his nose was sticking out of the water.” Mr. Dittmar thought he recognized the man and, it turns out, he was right. That man was Mr. Longmuir.
Mr. Dittmar said Mr. Longmuir appeared to be semi-conscious, and so they began to yell at him to grab hold of the rake. Mr. Longmuir could barely lift his arm in return. For several moments the rescuer tried to organize the rake under his arm, but this didn’t work. The rake kept getting stuck.
“I got closer, inching, just to the point where the ice was mush and then I went in too,” Mr. Dittmar recounted. With Mr. Prior tied to him, Mr. Dittmar grabbed hold of Mr. Longmuir’s hood and, pushing himself backwards, both in the icy water, began to make their way through the mush, foot by foot, until the hood broke away from Mr. Longmuir’s jacket. Eventually, using this same method, they found their way up and onto safer ice. Mr. Dittmar recalled that when he was pushing the victim through the mushy ice, they were following the trough left behind by the four-wheeler as it broke through the ice.
“He couldn’t do anything,” Mr. Dittmar said of Mr. Longmuir.
The rescuers decided their next move at that point, realizing that just because he was free from the water did not mean that he was not still in perilous danger. They pulled Mr. Longmuir across the ice with the rope until the ice was thick enough to stand on. Realizing that a snowmobile would not help the situation as a mode of transport, the two men decided to load the semi-conscious man onto Mr. Prior’s two-up ATV and Mr. Prior would pin Mr. Longmuir in his seat using the weight of his own body, leaning backward. By this time Mr. Clarke had joined the efforts too. Another area resident had also made his way to the scene to help.
“We kept talking to him, kept trying to keep him awake,” Mr. Dittmar said, adding that another call was made to ensure that an ambulance was on its way and giving the dispatcher the best description of where they would meet the paramedics.
Mr. Longmuir had been in the water for 40 minutes. His female partner had got herself out of the water and to shore in search of help.
“He was pretty lucky,” Mr. Dittmar said of Mr. Longmuir, who was sent to hospital and released the following day. “I had a good partner,” he said of Mr. Prior. “It takes co-operation. I would never have been able to do anything for him by myself.”
This newspaper reported that Mr. Longmuir had been reached for comment after his ordeal. “I’m just so grateful ‘cause I didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said, noting that he remembered most of the rescue, but things went dark just before he reached the ambulance.
“My bike went through the ice and I tried to the best of my ability to get out,” he recalled. My girlfriend got out, but I couldn’t. If it wasn’t for them showing up and doing what they did…”
Mr. Longmuir said he and his girlfriend had been out fishing, drilling numerous holes all with ice that was at least one foot thick. After not having any luck, they decided to set out for home, taking a different route—a route that put them in grave danger, as it turned out. He suffered from hypothermia, which “the good people at the Mindemoya hospital” took care of, he said, and also a heart condition caused by the release of an enzyme as a result of the incident.
