Did you know ice fishing comes with a chance — it’s remote, but it’s a chance — that a geyser of flame could erupt from your ice hole, flash fry you and your buddies, and blow your shanty to hell?
It sounds like something out of a low budget disaster movie, but that’s exactly what happened to an adult angler and his two kids when they were ice fishing in a tent on the Harriman Reservoir in southern Vermont earlier this month, resulting in serious injuries to all three. The cause? Apparently, this body of water has a problem with methane gas pockets getting trapped beneath the ice only to be released by someone’s auger, often erupting in a sizeable geyser.
No one at Wired2Fish has ever heard of something like this happening on the ice. Even the Wilmington police who responded to the incident were surprised, but they soon found out that locals in the area have known about this issue for some time. Once police began investigating this recent incident, they got a number of calls from people saying they’d witnessed similar occurrences.
However, police aren’t 100% convinced this is what happened to Joel Shepard and his daughters, Kaylee and Emmaleigh, who were identified in a post from MeatEater. The Wilmington Police Department said in a release that a faulty propane cylinder may have contributed to the vapor cloud in the anglers’ tent.
But it seems methane being trapped beneath is a real problem on Harriman Reservoir. Logan Boyd, who was quoted in the ME story, posted a video on Facebook that was recorded several years ago showing a methane geyser on the lake. Apparently, his father drilled a hole and the pressure was so high it erupted in a 12-foot geyser that blew the auger out of his hands. Of course, they had to set the sizable gas plume on fire.
Boyd was there when the Shepherds were injured and reportedly drove them back to their vehicle on his four-wheeler. From there, Shepherd was able to drive them to the hospital. They were eventually moved to a hospital in Boston where they were treated for severe burns to their faces and hands.
A GiveSendGo page has been set up to help the family through this difficult time.
“The dad and the girls came running out from the back of the tent. And their hats were melted down to their hair, their gloves and everything was melted off of them,” he told ME. After news of the incident broke, Logan posted on FB that there is “no need to shutdown the lake, this could happen in any reservoir…..but precautions do need to be taken!
I have never heard of this happening after the holes are drilled, however, I will now be drilling holes around the shanty in the off chance that a methane pocket shifts!”
Even if it was a methane pocket that injured Shepherd and his daughters, the gas still needs an ignition source to create a flash fire — so police are recommending anglers on the lake keep all potential ignition sources in their vehicles.
“The Wilmington Police Department during the investigation found that a propane-fueled heating device that was in use in the ice shanty at the time of the flash fire may have had a faulty propane cylinder attached which also may have contributed to the creation of the flammable vapor cloud in the confined air space of the ice shanty.
“Given the information available at the time of the investigation it was not possible to determine if the flash fire was caused by a propane or methane vapor cloud or if it was a combination of both which resulted in the flash fire,” the release says.
“A number of people from the community have contacted Wilmington Police Department about the safety concerns involved with this incident and requested among other suggestions that persons (or just children) be banned from the ice and that signage be posted to warn people of the methane hazard under the ice with instructions on how to vent the methane from under the ice.
“The Wilmington Police Department does not know of any completely safe ways to clear methane pockets from under the ice. Even if ice fishing holes are drilled and given time to clear any methane it is possible that methane pockets trapped between the ice and water surface can move and shift. This could mean that even once an ice fishing access hole is cleared there is no way to guarantee that a gas pocket could not move under the ice and vent at any time creating a potential hazard.
“The Wilmington Police Department recommends that anyone ice fishing on Harriman Reservoir take precautions to not introduce an ignition source especially when utilizing an ice shanty (confined air space).”
