Woman Drowns Trying to Save Son : Tragedy: She is among several rescuers who fall into a mountain lake as thin ice gives way. The 10-year-old boy and others are pulled to safety.

For Analiza Kiat and a dozen friends, it was supposed to be a day of fun and games in the snow near Wrightwood. But when they decided to picnic at a nearby lake because there was little snow to be found, the trip turned to tragedy.

Kiat’s 10-year-old son crashed through the thin ice that covered part of half-frozen Jackson Lake. Then the ice broke under the mother, who could not swim, as she ran to his aid. And then at least four other people fell into the water while responding to the chaos.

It all happened in a frantic 15 minutes. In the end, Kiat, 33, of Panorama City, drowned in the frigid water while her son, Ninoy, was rescued by a 20-year-old bystander, Christian McFarland.

“When I really started panicking was when everyone started falling into the water. It was like being in a movie,” said McFarland, a Pierce College student who sheriff’s and U.S. Forest Service officials called a hero for saving Ninoy.

“I’m glad the boy is safe,” McFarland said Sunday, “but I wish the mother was too.”

The incident occurred about 1 p.m. Saturday at five-acre Jackson Lake, just inside the Los Angeles-San Bernardino County line near Big Pines. Forest Service officials said the episode illustrates the dangers that can arise when normally sunbaked Southern Californians head for winter fun.

The lake has signs posted warning visitors not to tread on the ice because it usually does not get thick enough to support people. But the dead woman’s brother, Joseph Kiat, said Sunday that his group did not see the signs until it was too late, and that they ventured out onto the ice only after seeing many other people playing there.

“If everyone was playing there and having fun, you’re going to go out and play too. That’s what happened,” said Kiat, of Northridge, at whose home family members gathered Sunday to mourn Analiza Kiat. They were buoyed only by the news that Ninoy was to be released Sunday night from San Bernardino County Medical Center.

Kiat said his sister, a single mother who worked part time as a nurse in Santa Monica, had emigrated from the Philippines in 1987 and settled into the house she shared with her son and a relative.

“Her life was beginning to have some meaning. Everything was starting to come along. Now it’s just stopped,” he said.

Forest Service spokeswoman Shawn Lawler said the lake is a popular stopping spot for visitors, but no Forest Service personnel are stationed there and there is no way to keep people away from it in winter.

Despite the drowning, Lawler said she doubted that the Forest Service would attempt to restrict public access to the lake, preferring instead to continue to warn people to stay off the ice. She said Kiat’s death was the first ice-related drowning at the lake that Forest Service officials could recall, although people occasionally fall through the ice and are rescued.

By the time emergency crews arrived Saturday, all the people except Analiza Kiat had been helped from the water by friends.

“This is a problem we have every winter. We’re constantly stopping and telling people to get off the ice,” Lawler said. “Because it’s Southern California and it doesn’t freeze as much as in other places, the ice just isn’t thick enough to walk on. We put up signs and they get pulled down and used for snow sledding,” she said.

Joseph Kiat said his group had been out on the ice for several minutes when Ninoy, who was playing an ice hockey-like game, fell into the near-freezing water when the ice cracked. Analiza Kiat and the others followed. As people nearby began shouting, McFarland said he saw the commotion and began running that way.

McFarland said he did not know exactly what he would do--but the decision was soon made for him. The ice cracked under McFarland as well, dunking him into the water.

His first move was to swim for the boy, who was going under. As he did, other members of his and the Kiat party also began falling in.

Eventually, McFarland said, he began to weaken. He passed the boy to a woman from his group who was in the water while he managed to get back onto the ice.

Then, McFarland said, he used one hand to grasp a sheet of plastic that another man held as a makeshift safety line, and used the other hand to pull the boy and the woman from his group out of the water.

By that time the mother, who had been flailing in the water, had disappeared.

A short time later, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in a swimsuit went into the murky water in a vain search attempt. Analiza Kiat’s body was found about two hours later near the lake’s bottom by another deputy in scuba gear who had been flown in by helicopter.

As the sheriff’s diver pulled Kiat’s body from the lake, Lawler looked across the partially frozen water and saw another group of people watching the process--standing on the ice.