Beltrami County Emergency Services received a 911 call that dozens of fishermen were on a patch of ice that had separated from the shoreline of Upper Red Lake, with more than 30 feet of open water in between. A rescue operation was immediately launched from a nearby holiday resort. After three hours the ice fishermen could be rescued.
Before emergency services arrived, bystanders tried to canoe to the ice floe to evacuate the fishermen, but four people fell into the water and were then returned to the ice floe to warm in a fishing hut.
In winter, the American and Canadian lakes are an attraction for ice fishermen, who are transported across the ice on the American side with tracked vehicles. But due to unusually high temperatures in North America, the ice is less thick than normal for this time of year. Several vehicles have already fallen through the ice, resulting in at least two deaths this season.