A man escaped Wednesday night from his sinking truck after it crashed through the ice on Lake Minnetonka.

His dog couldn't be rescued and died, said Lt. Kent Vnuk with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Water Patrol unit.

The man was heading to his fish house on Lafayette Bay when his truck went through the ice near the Arcola Bridge, Vnuk said. It was not a posted thin-ice area, he said.

Vnuk said the man was able to climb out of the truck and pull himself onto a shelf of thin ice, where he yelled for help. "He used most of his energy to get on the ice and couldn't move," Vnuk said.

A resident on Lafayette Road heard the screams and called 911, he said.

Because of the thin ice, four deputies positioned themselves flat on the ice, forming a human chain to pull the man to safety.

The man was taken to shore on an ATV and was then taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, Vnuk said. He was conscious and alert.

Mary Lynn Smith