PRINCETON – Four members of the Monk family survived a fall through the ice Saturday on Big Lake, although two were in the cold water for as long as 25 minutes.

“It was our lucky day,” said Scott Monk, 28, who rescued his 6-year-old nephew, 31-year-old brother-in-law and 57-year-old father.

The family had gone to Greg Monk’s camp in Plantation 21 on New Year’s Day for ice fishing. Monk, who works at Domtar in Baileyville, has been a Princeton selectman for more than 18 years.

Scott Monk, brother-in-law Corey McIver and Robert Ripley, a family friend, were fishing about a half-mile from shore when Greg Monk and young Ryan McIver, his grandson, approached them on a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle.

When the two on the ATV fell through the ice, Ripley, who is a volunteer firefighter in Princeton, called for help on his cellular phone.

Scott Monk went to pull out Ryan, then broke through the ice himself. So did Corey McIver, as he struggled to help Scott.

Scott Monk was in the water for two or three minutes before he worked himself back onto the ice. He raced back to the camp on the four-wheeler the first fishing party had used.

“I knew my dad had everything we needed at the camp,” Scott Monk recounted on Sunday. “I knew I had to grab ropes and straps and go back.”

Scott Monk tied the rope to the four-wheeler and then tied the rope around his father to pull him out. He did the same for Ryan’s father, Corey.

By the time paramedics arrived from Indian Township, about 10 miles away, the three cold men and the boy were out of the water. They returned to the heated camp for warm clothes and food.

None of them sought further medical care, said Larry Libby, Indian Township’s fire chief.

“The ice is deceiving in places,” Libby said. “We got rain on New Year’s night and that melted all the snow on the ice. Some spots were 8 inches, but other places were just an inch.”

Brad Richard, a district game warden from Princeton, also responded to the emergency.

“These are very cautious people,” he said. “I know Greg Monk and he wouldn’t take his grandson out if he didn’t think it was safe. There are times when people are careless, but this was not that situation.”

Jan. 1 was the day that ice fishing opened on Big Lake.

“It’s bad enough for one to go through the ice,” Greg Monk’s wife, Betty, said Sunday. “But four at once is worse. It’s hard to absorb, but we are all doing OK.”