Antarctic Winter Adventures: Blog #13 A Little Bull Dozer Trouble

So on one of our days down here in McMurdo word was getting around that one of the large bull dozers had broken through the ice and was half in and half out of the water. The incident happened around 0930 in the morning, but all the Fleet Operation guys thought they would be able to get it out during the day sometime. Well, things kept going longer and longer and with a few attempts here and there the dozer was falling deeper into the whole.

Finally about 1800 they decided to bring in all the Fire Department since they were going to make a final try and they were worried because the dozer driver would be in the cab and if he went in the water they wanted others around crazy enough to go in and get him out. That would be US of course!!

So they pull us in, tell us what has been happening all day, and what the plans are now. We were going to set up some ropes attached to our engines and there was going to be two people dressed in dry suits in case they had to go in the water. The other folks on our crew would help with pulling on the ropes to help bring the rescuers and driver in.

Well only three of us have had cold water training and I just happened to be one of them. The three of us were going to get dry suits on, but it turned out that there were only two dry suits so myself and one of our Lt. were the ones to dress up and be ready if needed.

After finally finding all we needed to get dressed in and after all were situated on the ice, the Fleet Operations guys tried to pull the dozer out again for the last time before it got to late to try anymore. The first go at it actually put the dozer down farther into the whole, but there was no way they were going to give up. On the second try it seemed like all the previous practice trys helped out and they were finally able to get the dozer out of the ice.

The main reason they wanted to get the dozer out of the ice that night is if they didn't, and left if for the morning, the likelihood that the dozer would be stuck in the ice for the rest of the season was GREAT and they didn't want to have all these people coming in for the Summer season and seeing a large dozer halfway in the ice.

Needless to say nobody got hurt, bruised, or anything during the whole process. To say no one got cold would be a lie, but no one got hurt. The amazing thing through all this is that for all the time the dozer was half in water and ice NOTHING happened to the beast except for a broken light. That's it! All the seals and everything were kept well so the dozer was able to run half submerged in water. I guess the best thing about the whole situation is that it actually gave the Fire House something to do and get involved in. Can't be mad about that!!

So here are a few photos of the dozer in and out of the ice. There are also two photos of myself and the Lt. in our dry suits during the wait. Enjoy the photos and I'll be TRYING to get more up ASAP!!