ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) – Rockford firefighters have rescued two men who became stranded on a patch of ice after it broke free from a bank and began floating down a river. The two men were fishing while sitting on a mattress atop a roughly 20-by-20 feet patch of ice when the ice broke free Monday and floated about 500 yards down the Rock River. The Rockford Register-Star reports firefighters deployed an inflatable boat to rescue the men. No one fell into the water and no one was hurt. Rockford Fire District Chief Luis Duran says the patch of ice kept the men afloat and prevented them from falling into the river and risking hypothermia.
