LYNNWOOD — Firefighter Brent Allen carefully inched his way across the ice toward the man calling "Help me! Help me!"

Lying on his stomach, Allen jammed two screwdriver-like picks into the ice, pulling himself toward the flailing man.

Allen, dressed in a cold-water rescue suit, then looped a rope around the man and signaled to firefighters, who safely pulled them across the ice.

"I’m rescued!" Snohomish County Fire District 1 firefighter Mike Tipp said with a grin as he reached the edge of the rink at the Lynnwood Ice Center.

South Snohomish County firefighters used the rink to practice ice rescues last week, sharpening their skills before local lakes and ponds freeze over.

The area’s milder winters and widespread warnings about the danger of walking and skating on unstable ice have made ice rescues rare, firefighters said.

But this week’s training left firefighters better prepared to handle ice emergencies when they do happen, said District 1 firefighter Andy Speier, coordinator of the Southwest Snohomish County Technical Rescue Team.

District 1 firefighters on Friday practiced using the cold-water rescue suit, throwing a rope to a victim and using a rescue ring attached to a fire hose inflated with air.

Firefighters have better equipment and training available for ice rescues now than they did a decade ago, said District 1 Capt. Bruce Krause.

When two kids fell into Lake Serene 13 years ago, all that firefighters had to reach them was a borrowed rowboat, he recalled.

The district now has rescue suits that firefighters can change into on their way to pluck a victim from the water. The suits insulate them, allowing them to survive in icy water.

"We’ve taken a high-risk rescue and turned it into a low-risk rescue because of the equipment we have today," Speier said.

He warned that lakes and ponds may look frozen solid, but ice here usually doesn’t get more than a half-inch thick — not even close to thick enough to support an adult’s weight.

It’s difficult to get out of the water once you fall in, and people can quickly suffer hypothermia in freezing water, Speier said.

"If I fall through the ice, I probably have less than 10 minutes before I lose dexterity in my hands and get slurred speech" from the cold, he said.

Cold water can harm children more quickly, he said. Firefighters said extreme caution is needed around frozen ponds and lakes.

"Unless you know for sure how deep the ice is, it’s not a good idea to risk it," Speier said.

Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.