"I kept on screaming--"Hey! I had an accident I'm inside the lake. Somebody HELP me!" I kept screaming that out--"Help me! Help me! Help me!", he said.
Despite frigid waters and ten-degree air temperatures, Milam persisted and caught someone's attention.
"Where the open water is, by the mouth of the river, somebody's yelling help! They're in the water," stated an unidentified call to Fond du Lac County Emergency Dispatch Center. "Somebody's yelling "OH MY GOD! HELP." He's in the water. We can't see him," the caller added.
Within minutes Fond du Lac Fire Fighters responded. Two of them were already in cold water rescue suits ready to go. But the deteriorating ice conditions and darkness made their approach difficult.
"We went a considerable distance out there and the headlights from the police department vehicles. I mean, our crews said you could barely see us out there," said Lt. Rick Gerriston, Fond du Lac Fire Fighter.
"Tried to get up on it and disperse my weight and kept falling back through. So at that point, we knew we were going to have to make our way to him blazing a trail," recalled Jake Vogds, Fond du Lac Fire Fighter Paramedic.
Within 50-minutes they pulled Milam to shore and got him to a hospital for treatment. Authorities urge people to stay off the ice, with a hearty endorsement for Kelly Milam.
Local 5's Terry Kovarik has the story.
"I wouldn't be on the water right now because all the water, all the ice is turning into water right now," he said.
Local 5's Terry Kovarik has the story.
