Stranded but warm. With them on the floe were ice-fishing huts. Image: Kelleher Fire Department
Unusually thin December ice problematic
UPPER RED LAKE, Minn. – A large chunk of ice broke off from a shore of Upper Red Lake, stranding 122 people who had been ice-fishing. All were rescued unhurt. It took 2-1/2 hours to ferry the stranded people, a few at a time, to shire by boats and airboats. Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs said the most perilous moments were before rescue teams arrived. A group of bystanders on shore rowed canoes to evacuate the stranded fisherman, but four of them fell into the water. They swam and waded to the ice floe and warmed up in a fishing shelter. The floe had broken off about 5 p.m. Evacuations concluded about 7:30. The rescue was the latest on Up North lakes this month. Because of unseasonably warm weather, ice has been slow to form enough strength to support ice-fishing. Upper Red Lake has been the location for several ice rescues this winter, including:
> December 17: Thirty-five people were rescued from an ice floe.
> December 19: Three men were in an airplane that broke through ice in an aborted landing.
> December 21: Three men went through the ice when their all-terrain vehicle and trailer broke through the ice.
> December 28: A father and son fell through the ice on an all-terrain vehicle.
Also on Thursday but 18 miles away on Lake of the Woods, a resort’s oversize vehicle broke through ice with one death, a drowning, leaving five others to be rescued.