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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Quick action leads to rescue on thin ice

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 3/6/17

LAKE VERMILION—Quick action by Fred Reichel, of Lake Vermilion, saved the life of an Eveleth man last Saturday when his snowmobile went through the ice near Oak Narrows.

Ronald Hautala, age 70, …

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Quick action leads to rescue on thin ice

Posted

LAKE VERMILION—Quick action by Fred Reichel, of Lake Vermilion, saved the life of an Eveleth man last Saturday when his snowmobile went through the ice near Oak Narrows.

Ronald Hautala, age 70, was heading to a local resort for an afternoon lunch when he hit a patch of thin ice near the narrows, where current likely eroded the ice during exceptionally warm weather the week before. Hautala said he had seen another snowmobile spin out on glare ice in the spot and had slowed down to avoid losing control of his own sled— but as he slowed the thin ice gave way.

Hautala tried desperately to pull himself up out of the water, but said the ice kept giving way. After struggling for a number of minutes, Hautala said he all but gave up. “I thought I was done,” he said.

But Hautala got one very lucky break. Reichel, who lives near the narrows, was at home at the time. He had come home early from a pond hockey tournament to put his grandson down for a nap. He had just turned on the television in the living room and happened to glance out the window as Hautala’s snowmobile went down. Reichel called for his wife Kirsten to call 911, while he grabbed a rope and a canoe he kept near the house and made his way across the ice as quickly as he could. Reichel figures Hautala was in the water for about ten minutes before he was able to reach him. “It seemed like a lifetime to me,” Hautala recalled.

When Reichel got to the open water, he tossed one end of the rope to Hautala and pushed the canoe out into the opening. “He was able to pull me up, so I could get one leg into the canoe and was able to roll partway into the canoe,” recalls Hautala, who said he still had one leg dragging in the water. Reichel said he has no idea how he was able to lift Hautala, who was weighed down by his soaking wet gear.

By this time, Reichel’s neighbor Grant Pohto had come out on the ice with his ATV and threw Reichel another rope, which he attached to the canoe. Meanwhile, a few other snowmobilers, stopped to assist, and the group managed to pull the canoe up onto safe ice. From there, they helped carry Hautala, who said his legs weren’t working very well by that point, to Reichel’s residence, where they had him walk into their hot tub with his gear still on, to prevent him from warming too quickly.

He later got out of his wet clothes and was warming with a blanket when EMTs from the Cook Ambulance arrived to check him out. After some cajoling from rescuers, Hautala agreed to let them transport him to the Cook Hospital for tests and observation, where he was released a couple of hours later.

Hautala was back at home this week, with his sense of humor intact, and feeling incredibly thankful. “I owe my life to Fred,” he said. “I can’t thank him enough.”

Reichel isn’t taking all the credit, noting that others who responded helped get him and the canoe back to safety. “It was a group effort,” he said. “There was no way I could have gotten back on my own.”

While Reichel’s quick response undoubtedly saved Hautala’s life, it also potentially put his own life in jeopardy. But Reichel said that never really occurred to him at the time. “It was just one of those things where you respond by instinct,” he said.