RED LAKE, Minn. — *The above video first aired Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023.
Officials say between 122 people were rescued from Upper Red Lake Friday evening after a large chunk of ice broke off from the shore.
According to the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office, the large group of anglers became stranded after the ice they were on detached from the main shoreline.
Emergency responders were called to the scene at approximately 4:57 p.m., according to a statement.
Before the first responders arrived at the location, a group of bystanders attempted to use a canoe to evacuate the stranded fisherman. That attempt ended with four individuals falling into the water, according to a release from the sheriff's office. The four people were brought back to the ice floe to warm up in a fishing shelter.
Those four bystanders were the only people who fell into the water during the incident.
The evacuation was carried out by boat and airboat, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff's office. By 7:37 p.m., it was determined that all the stranded fishermen had been returned to the shoreline.
Upper Red Lake has been the location for several ice rescues this winter, including a mass rescue of 35 anglers on Dec. 17, a near-catastrophic plane landing on Dec. 19 and a rescue of three men on Dec. 21 after their ATV and trailer broke through the ice. On Thursday morning, the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office received another report from Upper Red Lake of a father and son falling through the ice on an ATV.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has issued multiple warnings about poor ice conditions statewide, telling the public that the recent combination of wind, rain and warm weather means "few, if any, areas of the state have the ice thickness necessary" for ice fishing.
"Use extreme caution if you venture on area lakes and check the ice thickness frequently," Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs warned in a news release last week.
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