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Tragedy near Selkirk

HTHM

By HTHM
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Old Ironmaker Fishing God

Old Ironmaker

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Peacock Point is about 10 to 15 mins in the boat from our place. We are the next point east of it. I didn't hear any helicopters Saturday as it was loud here with the winds blowing. Heard and saw them yesterday. The winds were out of the south west and they were looking in front of our place for a while. Close enough that if a member of a chopper had a loud speaker I might have heard them. Probably not they are loud. 

Who in Gods name lets kids play anywhere near the water at this time of the year is beyond me. Back in the 60's we were not supervised when swimming in this lake in the summer but everyone knew never to go near water in the winter. Even in cold winters where there is solid ice here winds blow the ice to shore and it creates huge 12' plus moguls with deep crevasses between each. Some  years back I saw 2 little kids playing on these things a few KM's out and went to the parents in the cottage to tell them to get their kids back in now. I did call them idiots to their faces. In the mean time 2 snowmobilers risked their safety and picked them up and drove the long way around to get the kids in. They had a few choice words for the parents as well. 

We had a skim of ice on the shore Wed after it got colder. I threw an apple onto it to see how thick it was and it went straight through. Just slush on Thursday. Because of the irresponsibility of adults a child lost his life. I don't know all the facts but you don't need to be an expert investigator to know that those kids weren't being supervised. That's 2 drownings in the last year mere minutes from us, one at the Featherstone Point bay area last summer on a calm day when a guy fell out of basically a small blow up toy boat fishing a few hundred yards from their rental cottage. (It is owned by friends of ours) and Saturday at Peacock Point. Tragic and unnecessary in my opinion, on both drownings. Still many unanswered questions on the summer drowning here. He was last seen fishing in 5' of water and that's where his MT boat was found. His body was found not from from where the boat was found empty. Yet The Coast Guard and OPP had expended the search grid  as far east as 15 miles from where the mans body was found. Big currents around here.  Search and rescue is one difficult job, my hat goes off to them. 

edit: I can't believe there was any ice there to play on Saturday. 

Edited by Old Ironmaker
Old Ironmaker Fishing God

Old Ironmaker

Posted
Posted (edited)

After thinking about how angry I got at the adults allowing the children to play on the ice I take back everything I said about adults not supervising them. I admit I was totally wrong, I was angry but not an excuse to blame the adults. I am truly sorry for what I said, I was wrong. 

We were also told not to go up the Hamilton Mountain and play in the woods because we could fall to our deaths, not to go near the TH&B tracks at the top of our street because the trains could suck us under the cars, or go anywhere near the Cope and Son's concrete plant on Lawrence Rd. and play on the huge pipes or we could fall between them and get crushed to death. We did everything we were told not to. We were kids and that's what kids do. Especially when it was taboo, if it was off limits the more we wanted to go there. We were kids.

They still haven't found his body after 4 days of searching. We have 4' waves crashing on the shoreline today, no divers out for many reasons.  

The child has been identified, below is the latest news. I can not even start to fathom the grief this family is enduring. 

Peacock Point is not a town as CBC reports. It's a small area that has several seasonal cottages and a few McMansions with a Selkirk ON mailing address. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/search-peacock-point-boy-hero-opp-1.5466557

Edited by Old Ironmaker
Old Ironmaker Fishing God

Old Ironmaker

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Posted

No sign of the young lad yet. Divers were able to get into the water this morning but visibility is zero with the chocolate milk the waves turned up. They are feeling the bottom by hand after someone monitoring side imaging sonar on a vessel above gets a possible target. Man that's a job I wouldn't want for any amount of cash. No helicopters our way today. To give you an idea where Peacock Point is it forms the inner bay that has the old Ontario Hydro coal fired plant and Stelco Steel, Nanticoke Ontario. Peacock Point is not a town in Ontario that the news reports incorrectly identify it as. It's a area of Haldimand Norfolk. Folks were walking the beach this morning at 7:30 here. We stopped by the command area today and a Coast Guard member said the cold water hampers a water recovery. I don't need to get graphic. We pray the Family can get some closure soon. It must be brutal for them. 

Old Ironmaker Fishing God

Old Ironmaker

Posted
Posted

Divers were in the water today and choppers out scouring the shoreline. Visibility is zero, divers search with their hands. I said it before you couldn't pay me enough and some of these divers are volunteer firefighters. I have walked the shoreline east and west searching as far as it was walkable. We get huge moguls here on shore that make walking impossible. I just can not imagine what his family is going through as well as his sister who was the last to see him in the water before he went under and his pal who Alex went into the water to get him out. Yes their are many people in the last week that have lost their lives but this is very close to home. We live in an area that geographically is large but only 45,000 citizens here. Just today I was at the dentists and the dental assistant knows the social worker helping the sister and young fellow that Alex went into the water to help get out. They are both suffering badly. It puts my aches and pains into perspective compared to theirs. 

Old Ironmaker Fishing God

Old Ironmaker

Posted
Posted (edited)

Although the "official" search has been called off by the OPP there is a group of citizens that will be doing their own searches along the shoreline using drones and when weather permits boats with side scan sonar. I look up and down the shore with binoculars a few times a day and every time I see something in the water that shouldn't be there my heart skips a beat. There is a Go Fund me page if anyone is interested. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ptkrbv-alex-the-great-hero

Edited by Old Ironmaker
  • 4 weeks later...
Old Ironmaker Fishing God

Old Ironmaker

Posted
Posted

No words to express and we can't imagine what this poor family is going through. The grand father of Alex our Hero wrote a letter to the editor of our weekly paper out here, The Sachem, thanking all the search teams and all those that helped during this tragic time. We both got chocked up reading it. From the local Tim Hortons that donated jugs of coffee and boxes of treats to our local Food Land that donated all sorts of food for the searchers. The community came out in droves to search from shore as well as people that live nowhere near Peacock Point. 

Alex is a real life Hero, not those that score goals and touchdowns or play a hero on TV and in the movies. 

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