An icebreaker for Wrenchbender

Last Sunday morning, Invermere resident, John Ronacher, decided to do a little ice fishing up at White Swan Lake. The fish were biting and it looked like it was going to be a great day to be in the outdoors, something John has been partial to since his childhood years in the valley.

Photos: More pics of this fish story with a twist.

Things were going pretty well until he looked up to see a newer model black 1-ton Dodge truck go through the ice. A while later, a white tow truck from Canal Flats appeared on the scene and began rescue operations. By the end of the day however, the tow truck was also in the ice and the situation seemed to be more hopeless than it was in the beginning!

That was when John decided that he had had enough and it was time to go home. “It was a zoo”, he told Columbia Valley News. “The worst part of it all was that the fish stopped biting when the commotion began”. He decided to try again on Monday.

Monday morning he was back at the scene with his dad for another day of fishing and lo and behold! Both the Dodge and the tow truck were still there! Around about 11:30 in the morning, an enormous red tow truck from Cranbrook arrived at the scene, loaded with gear and ready to do battle with the ice. It worked all day and by the time John and his dad left, the truck was still at the task.

As you can see in the photo, John’s dad managed to catch some pretty good ones though, in spite of all the ruckus.

Well the story doesn’t end there. From the photo of the partially submerged tow truck, we thought we recognized it to be Wrench Bender Towing out of Canal Flats. We gave a quick call to Dennis Reed, proprietor, and he verified that it was in fact his tow truck. He told us that as of Wednesday evening, the two trucks are still in the water and the Cranbrook tow truck is still trying to get them out! The unfortunate part is that although the truck is quite old, Dennis just recently had it completely rebuilt.

Update: We spoke again to Dennis Reed of Wrench Bender on Thursday and he says that both trucks are now safely onshore. His advice to all drivers who are tempted to do a few turns on the lakes in the area? Don’t!