D.C. officials warn people that walking on frozen waterways can be deadly and is illegal

Officials are warning people that stepping out onto naturally formed ice on rivers and bodies of water is unsafe.

“Although it looks safe, although it looks like you could walk on it, it is extremely dangerous, extremely deadly and also illegal,” Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Andrew Horos, who also serves as the District’s harbormaster, said on social media when the Potomac River froze over.

The Metropolitan Police Department told WRC-TV that, though no tickets had been issued yet, people could get fined up to $100 for walking on the ice.

On Tuesday, the D.C. Fire and EMS Department responded to help recover a dead person from the ice on the Potomac River near the 14th Street Bridge. Officials have not named the deceased or said how they ended up on and among the ice. Police are investigating the death.

The river is of particular concern.

Lt. Horos told WTOP-FM that “unlike a pond, where you would fall through and you would kind of stay in that area and people would be able to come and rescue you; if you fall in that area with a strong undertow, you’re going to get swept under the ice.”

Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service public information officer Pete Piringer wrote on social media that “ALL outside ’natural’ ice forms can be deceptive & unpredictable & thus make it very dangerous.”

The National Weather Service office for the Baltimore and Washington area also posted a graphic on X stressing that though surface ice on rivers, ponds, reservoirs and other bodies of water can look solid, it is actually unstable and weak.

People should stay off ice that is 2 inches or less in thickness, NWS said. Ice that’s 4 inches thick is safe for walking or ice fishing, ice that’s 5 inches thick is safe for small groups of ice skaters, ice that’s 6 inches thick can support snowmobiles or other all-terrain vehicles, ice that’s 9 inches thick can hold up a car and ice that’s a foot thick can support a “medium-size truck.”