TOOELE, Utah — A 20-year-old man died while rescuing a woman who had fallen into Settlement Canyon Reservoir Monday night.
The man was later identified as Emaloni Lutui, a resident of Taylorsville.
It’s the second death of a young person in this reservoir in the past year, almost to date.
Last year, the Tooele community lost 14-year-old Jayden Davis.
His grandfather Chris Sloan sent a statement to FOX 13 News on Tuesday, saying:
“The approaching anniversary was tough enough without this latest tragedy. We hurt for the family members affected as well as the amazing first responders that have been put through this again. I hope this latest tragedy makes people think through the potential catastrophe that goes with venturing out on the ice this time of year.”
Cpl. Colbey Bentley with the Tooele Police Department added that it’s been hard for the community.
“It hurts, you know, having gone through this last year and you know, another incident during the summer, but having these two ice incidents being so similar, it's just reopening an old wound and it hurts and having it hurt for us,” said Bentley. “We can only imagine how bad it hurts for the family who's going through this right now.”
Bentley said unfortunately there is a lot to be learned from horrible accidents like these, like avoiding the ice altogether, not going on ice at night when it’s hard to see, and knowing the conditions.
“Usually, the rule of thumb is ice seems to be at least four inches thick for people to be able to walk safely on it. Anything below that is not safe whatsoever to walk on,” said Bentley.
If you are with someone and they fall through ice, he said the last resort is to go in after them.
“Reach, throw, go. So if you can reach the person, reach out and, and try to grab them if you can. If there's an item, you can throw to them and pull them back in,” said Bentley.
If you fall in, he said to try and stay calm.
“The biggest thing is to try and not panic. Heat leaves the body very quickly, especially when you're thrashing around, different things like that. If you can get your arms up on some ice and try to pull yourself up while you're kicking, that's a really big help. If you can't do that, just keeping your chest above the water," Bentley advised.
The city of Tooele announced Tuesday that the reservoir is closed to all activity until further notice.
