A six-year-old girl was treated at Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin on Tuesday after falling through the ice on Mill Pond.

According to Austin Police Chief Brian Krueger, officers responded to a call at 6:20 p.m. on Tuesday of a six-year-old girl having fallen through the ice near the center concrete pillar of the walking bridge between the library and the skate park crossing Mill Pond. The girl was following tracks on the ice when she fell in. Her father who was not on the ice, did not have a phone, so a third individual called it in.

When police arrived, the girl was holding on to the edge of the ice. They attempted to get a flotation device to her, but were unsuccessful.

The Austin Fire Department arrived on the scene, where firefighter Tim Hansen put on a water rescue suit and walked out on the ice to rescue her, according to Austin Fire Chief Jim McCoy. Although the ice was cracking under his weight, Hansen was able to rescue the girl and get her safely back to shore.

Gold Cross Ambulance Service took the girl to Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin, where she was treated for hypothermia and released.

Both Krueger and McCoy agreed the situation could have been much worse.

“Stay off the ice, especially this time of year when we have warm days and the ice is starting to melt,” McCoy said. “Your next step is never guaranteed to be one that will support your weight.”

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ice is only safe to walk on if it has a thickness of five inches or more.

Tips on what do if you fall through the ice

•Don’t remove your winter clothing. Heavy clothes won’t drag you down, but instead can trap air to provide warmth and flotation. This is especially true with a snowmobile suit.

•Turn toward the direction you came. That’s probably the strongest ice.

•Place your hands and arms on the unbroken surface. This is where a pair of nails, sharpened screwdrivers or ice picks come in handy in providing the extra traction you need to pull yourself up onto the ice.

•Kick your feet and dig in your ice picks to work your way back onto the solid ice. If your clothes have trapped a lot of water, you may have to lift yourself partially out of the water on your elbows to let the water drain before starting forward.

•Lie flat on the ice once you are out and roll away from the hole to keep your weight spread out. This may help prevent you from breaking through again.

•Get to a warm, dry, sheltered area and re-warm yourself immediately. In moderate to severe cases of cold water hypothermia, you must seek medical attention. Cold blood trapped in your extremities can come rushing back to your heart after you begin to re-warm. The shock of the chilled blood may cause ventricular fibrillation leading to a heart attack and death!

Information courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/ice/survival.html