Disoriented by snow, pair go through Webb Lake ice

FARMINGTON – Two ice fishermen moving a shack from one lake to another
became lost in a snowstorm Wednesday night, drove onto thin ice and
sank into Webb Lake near Weld.

Craig Coulombe and Willfred
Gagne, both of Farmington, were in a pickup truck pulling an ice shack
on a trailer from Embden Pond to Webb Lake when the mishap occurred,
according to Deborah Turcotte of the Maine Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife

Coulombe, who was driving his 1999 Dodge
1500, was traveling on the north end of Webb Lake to the Dummers Beach
area where he dropped off the shack, Turcotte said.

When
leaving, the men became disoriented by the snowstorm. They later told
Game Warden Kris MacCabe that they believed they were driving north
when they were heading south.

Warden MacCabe said the men drove
the entire length of the lake before going onto thin ice and open water
at the narrow part of the lake near Webb River.

The front end of
the truck crashed through the ice and sank. Wardens MacCabe and Josh
Smith responded to the ice anglers’ call for help and helped get the
men to safety. Neither fisherman was hurt.

On Thursday, as the
first attempt to retrieve the truck was made, it sank farther when the
trailer was removed from the back, Turcotte said. Water rose halfway up
the doors on both sides of the pickup.

Tow-truck operators were
hampered by ice breaking around the pickup but by nightfall, it was
successfully hauled off the lake. The amount of damage was not known.
Coulombe and Gagne could not be reached for comment.