Three "hotshot'' firefighters on mop-up duty inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness swamped a canoe Sunday and were rescued by a float plane from cold, choppy waters on Lake Insula, reports WELY "End of the Road RAdio."
Tippy canoe for firefighters, too
Hotshot firefighters overloaded canoe capsizes in BWCA
October 20, 2011 at 4:52PM
Hotshot fireighters receive training on how to heft canoes last month in the BWCA. Star Tribune photo.
That's the same lake where six Forest Service employees narrowly survived a firestorm Sept. 12 by deploying their emergency shelters.
On Sunday the three firefighters were in the lake for 20 minutes and experienced symptoms of hypothermia. They were treated and released from a local hospital.
The latest tale of lives at risk in the 2-month-old Pagami Creek Fire was reported by Eli Bissonett, news director at WELY. He reported that the canoe was heavily loaded with gear and began taking on water over its gunnels in windy conditions. The three hotshots couldn't bail the vessel fast enough and it swamped.
It was powered by a small outboard motor that was lost somewhere in the lake after the canoe submerged and was driven by waves into a rocky shoreline.
Bissonett said the accident created "lots of upheaval'' within the fire command, which has stressed firefighter safety. He said the Forest Service described two of the hotshots as "locals'' but didn't release their names.
But the Hotshots are highly trained, highly skilled firefighters brought in to control the Pagami Creek fire. Most of them come from the west -- and they needed training on how to paddle and manage a canoe when they got here.
