Kids rescued from thin ice

A pair of bystanders helped rescue two young children who fell through thin ice in western Alaska.

Cory LePore Sr. heard screams coming from the slough that runs near his Bethel home and behind a convenience store last week, he told KYUK-AM .

“I happen to look over and there was a young lady and a small boy sitting in the middle of the slough, waist deep in the water,” LePore said.

LePore went over to the children and examined the ice. The freezing water was running fast underneath the surface. He didn’t know how deep it was, so he instructed the children to get to a patch of ground nearby, he said.

“So I instructed them to roll and stand on some solid ground, and stand and wait,” LePore said.

LePore was running to his truck to grab a pallet when he saw the girl falling back into the freezing water, but then Joseph Joekay appeared. Joekay ran from the nearby store to help.