Warm weather has left thin ice on Lake Champlain, and a group of ice fishermen found out how dangerous it is the hard way -- when they got stranded.

Fire and rescue units set up a command post where the ice first broke up on Malletts Bay near Porter's point. A gusting wind opened up,large gaps, leaving eight people and their ice fishing gear stranded by open water.

Mike Muir of Charlotte, one of the rescued ice fisherman, told Channel 3, "All of a sudden we heard a big pop and we said, oh boy, let's go. We got going and came up to a spot in the ice and we stopped and within five minutes it was five feet of water."

Muir and five others were pulled to safety soon after he used his cell phone to call for help. Two others tried to walk around the open water, making the rescue much harder. "As we came out to help them, some other people decided to try to find their own way off while we were getting ready to set up," Chief Robert Young of the Malletts Bay Fire Dept. said, "which complicated it a little bit more because instead of keeping everybody in one spot, they all split up."

The pair made it almost all the way across Malletts Bay, but found even more open water.

"We saw the water coming closer and closer to us," Keith Wilber said. So we thought if we walked around and headed out this way (to the other side of Malletts Bay), we could probably find some way to get off the ice. But we went around the whole bay to get off and it was just all open water. It broke up, kept on breaking up all around us."

The rescuers, including units from Colchester, Grand Isle and Burlington, inched their way forward with a Zodiak, an inflatable boat. Supervisors ashore coordinated the effort by two-way radio. Four hours after the ice first broke up, the rescuers closed in and the fishermen were escorted to safety.

A New York State police helicopter patrolled as back-up for the rescuers and to make sure no one else was in the water.

This was the first major ice rescue of the season, in spite of the mild winter. Assistant Chief Bill Baron of the Grand Isle Ice Rescue Team said, "Typically, we average half a dozen of these a year, some very serious, some not so serious. But we look at each one of these as a potentially life-threatening situation."

Officials credit a strong mutual aid system, in which multiple fire and rescue units work together, for saving the day. And a little luck. "Yeah, we're lucky," Mike Muir admitted. "I'm glad I had the cell phone, I'll tell you that."