7 Are Feared Drowned Below Lake’s Ice

Three youngsters on an holiday outing fell through the ice at frozen Convict Lake in Central California on Monday and apparently were followed to their deaths by four would-be rescuers, officials said. Another youth was pulled to safety.

“The worst scenario we’re working with is seven fatalities,” said Mono County Sheriff-Coroner Martin Strelneck. A full-scale search for the bodies was called off at dusk and will resume at dawn today.

Strelneck said officials have ruled out any chance that victims remained trapped but alive in air pockets under the ice, which was about an inch thick.

“It would not be a possibility,” he said, adding: “The rescue attempts were futile.”

Strelneck said there was a slight chance that one of the youths was unaccounted for, but the strongest probability was that all seven died. Aircraft flew over the lake before dusk and found no evidence that anyone survived, he said.

The three youths were clients of a private probation-type facility near the Convict Lake area, Strelneck said. He declined to identify the facility, but other sources said it was Camp O’Neal, located next to the lake.

Two of the adult rescuers killed were counselors from the same camp, Strelneck said. One was an employee of the U.S. Forest Service, and another was a volunteer firefighter with the Long Valley Fire Department’s rescue team.

“They were successful at getting one kid back,” Strelneck said.

The incident apparently began shortly after noon at Convict Lake, a picturesque vacation spot in the mid-Sierra that is favored by trout fishermen. The lake is set in a granite bowl just north of Crowley Lake and southeast of Mammoth Lakes.

Details of the trip were not known Monday, but Strelneck said initial information indicated that several children from Camp O’Neal went over to the lake early Monday.

“The only information I have is that they were playing on the ice,” Strelneck said.

The camp is privately owned and handles juveniles who have been declared wards of the court because of minor offenses, local officials said.

When the children were about 200 yards offshore, the ice apparently broke and they were sucked into the frigid water. The first rescuers were camp counselors who were either playing with the children or immediately nearby. Two of them also fell through the ice and apparently died, Strelneck said.

The second wave of rescuers brought the Forest Service and volunteer firefighter, who also were believed to have died.

When the reports were first called in, Mono county authorities mounted a search-and-rescue effort that at its height included 60 to 70 people--local volunteer firefighters, paramedics and sheriff’s deputies.

Authorities have called in the Washoe County, Nev., sheriff’s diving team to search under the ice early today. The California Office of Emergency Services also will provide support, Strelneck said.

The sheriff-coroner said officials at Convict Lake had no choice but to call off the search late Monday.

“Because of the circumstances and hazards of nighttime (searches), it was suspended as of dusk,” he said. “We will do full-bore on it tomorrow.”

Sheriff’s deputies declined to release the names of the victims until the next of kin have been notified.