St Louis County Rescue Squad

The crew recovers the zodiac out of the St Louis River last night after a successful rescue. Our small zodiacs are the perfect boat to be able to hand carry into challenging bodies of water and have a reliable rescue platform. Diana 7337, Alex 7376, and Matt 7329 muscle it onto the guide rails of a homeowners boat launch. It was a challenging but good night.

"Car!" Squad members pause their throw bag training while the highway maintenance truck comes through our "river" tonight. The wind threw our boat night training for a loop. While not strong enough to stop a rescue if needed, the wind would not have been very helpful for a training night. So we switched over to several land based training modules to keep the rust off our skills including throw bags, extrication tools, and winching.

Friends, squad members will be at 14 National Night Out events around the county this evening. We hope to see you out enjoying the beautiful weather and comradery. If you see us out, snap a pic and drop it in the comments! Bonus points for getting the fun equipment we are bringing in the background.

Squad members were out today like many of you enjoying the beautiful Minnesota weather on the lake. We however were watching over the swimmers participating in this year's Buzz Ryan Triathlon instead of jigging for walleyes.

Folks, if you live in St. Louis County you may have seen our annual fundraiser in your mailbox in the past couple of weeks. We usually announce when it comes out but it was hitting your mailbox about the time of the wildfires. We felt the wildfire communication was more important than our annual fundraiser. That being said we want you to know we couldn't do what we do without your support and generous donations. Your support and donations help us do what we do. Whether it be a car accident, missing hunter, water emergency, event support, tools, or training your dollars matter. If you have already sent a donation, Thank You! If you haven't we'd love for you to consider donating to the Rescue Squad. If you live outside the county you can still support us through our web donation link below.

https://www.slcrs.org/donations

Bill J (7160) photo

We don't have any helicopters in our stable much to the chagrin of several of our members. HOWEVER we partner with some of the best agencies in the country to help expedite folks out of a jam to a higher level of care. Lifelink, North Memorial Air Care, and the State Patrol MART team throughout the year all have some level of interaction with us both in training and real world calls. Occasionally the MN national guard and MN DNR rotary aircraft end up participating as well. We thrive on jumping into action and helping folks out, but the reality is sometimes the helicopter is the best tool for the job. That's when we ask our partners to jump into action with us. We often have plan B and C in motion to help folks if the helicopter doesn't work out whether it's weather, mechanical issues, or just plain dumb luck. This often leads to a canoe crew halfway to the person needing help turning around or an ATV ride to nowhere. This is all to say when the call comes out we often have several different plans in motion to help folks and usually defer to the most efficient answer on how to solve the problem. We couldn't do what we do without the help of these partner agencies and their equipment.

Below photo is Diana (7337) watching Lifelink dust off after a recent ATV incident. Dani (7316) photo.

Brett (7100) and Diana (7337) drive through a thick woods trail this morning to go help an adventure motorcyclist out of a jam. The subject was physically fine but met the bane of all adventure motorcyclist's, a rock took out the infamous kickstand sensor and wouldn't let him put the motorcycle in gear. Being prepared with a phone with enough battery and GPS to help us locate him it was one of our favorite types of rescues where everyone is physically fine, but a good story and positive lesson learned comes out of it.

We received a good reminder today of how big the county we serve is. Members were still supporting the Boundary waters wildfires up in Ely, this motorcyclist rescue in the middle of the county, and a water emergency two hours drive time from Ely in Duluth. With members and equipment around the county our team continues to respond to the needs of St. Louis County.

Subjects in both the woods rescue and water emergency were just fine and not in any need of medical attention.

Dana (7391) Photo

615 sits on the side of the Echo Trail as one of the fire boss aircraft makes its inbound water drop run on the Bear Trap Fire.

More and more resources are pulling into the Ely area every day. The overall situation remains very fluid. Rescue Squad crews today saw people from all over the country and region. Thank you to everyone pulling together on this one.

Evacuation Map Here:
https://sheriff-slcgis.hub.arcgis.com/pages/wildfire

Pete Kramer (7299) photo

Friends, the wind shift has brought the immediate reality of the fires in the Boundary Waters to our doors, windows, nose, and lungs. Throughout the spin up of resources addressing these fires we have supported the larger response by having a quick reaction crew station in Ely each day for search and rescue efforts. Yesterday several members supported the closure and evacuation of the Echo Trail. Over the next several days we have plans to stage people and equipment in the Ely area to support search and rescue operations or other needed emergency response we can affect. Below Captain Brett Schelde (7100) and North LT KK Johnson (7353) coordinate our portion inside of the larger Incident Command. Picture by Emergency Support Services Administrator Dewey Johnson.

Folks, we hope any activities you find yourself in over the next several days you stay safe. Whether you are on the front lines feeling the heat from the flames, piloting a plane dropping water, or making sure everyone is hydrated and bellies full WE APPRECIATE YOU!

For current evacuation information go here:
https://sheriff-slcgis.hub.arcgis.com/pages/wildfire

During times like these everyone wants to help where they can, we would recommend keeping an eye on St. Louis County, Minnesota page. At 3:00 p.m. 7/15/26 They are currently not needing any donation of supplies.

Friends in the very northern part of the county please be aware of the fire and see the info shared from the Sheriff below.

St Louis County MN Emergency Services Hub Information and resources from St. Louis County (MN) Emergency Management.