Hugh finally fell thru the ice?
My thoughts exactly Mr Bata-via. Eiher Hugh, like you mentioned , or perhaps they had enough of Rick’s whining and took him up and then blew up his body with dynamite.
But do not underestimate our friend Drew, he may have finally been allowed to haul something and he was either hauling high explosives or gasoline and looked in the tank, using his cifarette lighter for light.