As many as 20 anglers were reported stranded Wednesday night on a large floating ice chunk on Mille Lacs Lake with three area fire departments involved in their rescue.
The anglers were reported stranded after 7 p.m. on the north end of the lake by the Red Door Resort. It was unclear how many anglers were stranded because of night visibility restrictions and the size of the ice chunk. The Minnesota State Patrol was believed to be sending a helicopter to determine how many people were trapped on the ice.
“As they take people off, more show up,” said Brainerd Fire Chief Kevin Stunek.
Aitkin County Sheriff Scott Turner said he planned to wait until Thursday morning to issue a statement and that he could not confirm the number of anglers stranded on the ice. Brainerd, Garrison and Aitkin firefighters were at the scene using a Hovercraft and rescue sleds to get the anglers to safety. No one was reported in the water and the people were not in immediate danger, Stunek said.
However, rescuing that many people was expected to be time consuming with one or two of the stranded anglers fitting in the Hovercraft for each trip to shore. “Stay off the ice, that’s just a huge thing,” Stunek said of the message on ice safety. Early cold temperatures this season without snow made for laudable ice on area lakes, but temperatures rose to 50 degrees in Brainerd Sunday and have remained unseasonably mild.
“The ice is not safe,” Stunek said.
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
Comments (7)
Add commentIce rescue on Mille
What about Phil Erickson from myr mar? He rescued 90% of the people and was not mentioned in the article at all!
more stupidity on the ice
So what does it cost to fly a state-owned helicopter to rescue these fools in conjunction with all of the other county & local rescue teams? It's been an unusually warm winter so far, just because you always go ice fishing this week doesn't cut it. I'm sick of my ever-increasing tax dollars being spent on saving irresponsible people from themselves - at no cost to themselves. Are the rescued going to pony up and be held economically accountable for this or not?
What say you Minnesota, Brainerd, Garrison & Aitkin governments?
Ice Rescue
How does a rescue of stranded people ice fishing get turned into a political debate over "ever-increasing" tax dollars? Oh im sure this one incident drastically altered the economics of your state and local government. Nobody cares about your personal economic concerns.
I cant wait to get out on Mille Lacs and catch some Walleyes. Glad everyone was ok! Thanks to everyone who helped.
Ice Rescue
It's not different than if you went shopping at the MOA and while you were there there was an ice storm and you got into a car accident while driving home. Rescue workers would then have to spend money to save you. And some would argue, "well, the weatherman is never right so I figured I was safe", and then some would say you were a fool for not believing the weatherman. So does that mean that you should not recieve care because you made a bad choice? People make all kinds of choices of activities they want to participate in, and not everyone agrees that someone's individual choice is the "correct" one, but fact remains, it's within our rights to choose.
Ice Rescue
To "beenaroundtheblock". You should keep going around the block until you learn something. People have passions and as long as they do, they are going to get in trouble from time to time. I'm sure you have your own passions? That said, sounds like a lot of people would like to be the heros in this rescue except an old "ICE MAN" that was the main hero. Give him some credit.
Hmmmmm!
You must mean the guy who had been drinking and didn't even have a life vest? Well then your right, good job! Yep, good job not hurting yourself or anyone else . . . . . . or worse . . . . . . . unbelievable
stupid
went by garrison yesterday-over 100 on the ice and open water not far away. some one should stand at the landing selling body bags. it is not passion,it's totally stupid and then put the rescuers lives at risk!*********