Worker dies when machine falls through ice

HOUSTON — Unable to escape the cab, a man died tonight when the heavy equipment he was operating broke through the ice covering a muskeg swamp.

The tree cutting tractor run by Alaska Hydro-Ax Land Clearing was cutting brush for Matanuska Electric Association around a power line a mile and a half off the Parks Highway near Mile 62.5, said Willow Fire Chief Lance Barve.

The emergency responders got the call from the other member of the crew just before 5 p.m. The rig broke through the ice and the cab was almost completely submerged. The doors were blocked by the ice.

Due to the lack of road access, members of the Mat-Su Dive Rescue Team were driven in on snowmachines. Barve said they were using axes and chainsaws to try and break the ice around the cab. After 50 minutes on the scene, the driver was still trapped.

About 6 p.m., the call came over the radio that the operation had turned into a body recovery.

Once that call is made, said West Lakes Fire Chief Bill Gamble, everything slows down. Safety of the responders becomes the primary concern, he said, and a more methodical approach is taken to get the worker out.

The other worker on the crew — whose machine also broke through, but in shallower water — was uninjured.