Department of Natural Resources Sgt. Steven Burton remembers a day in early January a few years back when he organized a group of conservation officers from all around the Upper Peninsula for a special snowmobile patrol in the Bergland area.

It had been an uneventful day, Burton said, until, at around 1 p.m., a phone call came in to 911 saying a couple of snowmobiles had gone through the ice on Lake Gogebic.

"Fortunately, a couple of our guys were just five minutes away," Burton said. "Officers Brett Gustafson and Doug Hermanson responded to the call. By the time they got there, one of the two snowmobile riders had gotten out of the water, but the other couldn't. The officers crawled on their bellies, coaching the guy through self-rescue techniques, but the guy couldn't make it."

Burton rounded up a couple of other officers -- Matt Eberly and Dave Miller -- and all three arrived on the scene. The snowmobiler, who was hanging on the edge of the ice, complained that he was loosing feeling in his extremities.

Unable to get out to the victim on the thin ice, the officers improvised. They took the ORV ramp out of the back of two of their trucks. The officers used one ramp to help distribute their weight over the ice, tied ropes to the other ramp and pushed it out to the victim.

"The man was able to put his arms and shoulders through the holes in the ramp and the officers were able to pull him out of the water," Burton said. "He never could have held onto the rope. His hands were numb already.

"I hate to think what would have happened if we weren't in the area," Burton continued. "It was just one of those things where we were in the right place at the right time."

Unfortunately, trained law enforcement personnel are not always in the right place at the right time. Almost every year there are a couple of fatalities in Michigan caused by breaking through the ice.

It happens to fishermen all the time, too," Burton said. "They get too close to the inlets or the outlets of the lake and they wind up going into the drink. I've done four ice rescues in my 13 years on the force and some of my officers have done more."

Winter came early this year and anglers were out on the ice in virtually every county of the state before Christmas. But just because anglers have already been getting after the fish this year doesn't mean ice is safe everywhere -- or even in some places where it was safe earlier.

This is especially true in areas of the state where the warm-up after Christmas, accompanied by rain and strong winds, reduced ice conditions.

"No ice is ever completely safe ice," Burton said. "Obviously, during some times of the year, some ice is much better than other ice. But all ice had the propensity to be dangerous."

Although some folks publish guidelines that portray the relative safety of ice by its thickness, the Michigan DNR does not recommend any standard guidelines for recreational activities.

Not all ice is created equal; a few inches of clear, fresh ice can be stronger than a foot of ice that has melted and refrozen. And any ice that is under a blanket of snow should be considered suspect as snow can insulate ice, slowing the freezing process or, if heavy enough, actually pushing ice down causing water to flow over the surface.

Similarly, ice rarely forms evenly on any body of water. Areas with current or underwater springs can have significantly less ice than other parts of a lake. Just because someone is driving his truck on the ice -- something the DNR never recommends -- does not mean it will be able to support someone on foot elsewhere on the lake.

Although fishing, skating or snowmobiling are all excellent recreational pastimes, it is important that participants make certain that the ice is safe before they begin.

The DNR offers a number of recommendations for those who go out on the ice, including: