BARRON COUNTY, Wis. — A 17-year-old Minnesota teen is dead after his kayak overturned on a lake in western Wisconsin Saturday.
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald says multiple people called 911 from Kirby Lake in Maple Plain Township just after 12:30 p.m. to report hearing screams for help coming from the water. Callers told dispatchers that two people were kayaking and both had overturned. One of the paddlers, a 17-year-old male later identified as Emilliano Alonzo Linaldi Enriquez of Minneapolis, went under and did not resurface.
Fitzgerald says the other kayaker, the victim's brother, made it safely to shore.
First responders from multiple agencies responded to Kirby Lake. After searching with sonar a team from the Shell Lake Fire Department detected an image underwater that appeared to be the missing teen. Boats from the Wisconsin DNR and the Barron County Sheriff's Department also detected images of a body.
A dive team from the Chetek Fire Department entered the water and pulled Linaldi Enriquez from the lake. First responders started life-saving measures and the teen was flown by air ambulance to a hospital in Minnesota. Unfortunately, he did not survive.
The fatal incident remains under investigation by the Barron County Sheriff's Office and the DNR.
Water safety experts from the Minnesota DNR recently issued a warning to paddlers, hunters, anglers and others who are on the water as temperatures and lakes cool down. Even for strong swimmers, unexpected falls into the cold water this time of year can turn tragic quickly, the agency said in a news release sent out in late October.
Those on the water should consider that there are fewer people around to help or call 911 in the case of an emergency,
“This time of year, the water is particularly unforgiving,” said Capt. Adam Block, DNR boating law administrator. “Unfortunately, in the past few weeks we have seen a number of people on the water either not wearing life jackets, or not even having them along. If there’s one thing you can do to ensure you make it home safely at the end of your trip, it’s wearing a life jacket.”
Along with wearing a life jacket, the DNR urges late-season boaters to:
- Distribute weight evenly across the watercraft.
- Tell someone on shore where they’re going and when they plan to return
- Carry a communications device to call for help
- Keep an eye on the weather