St. Louis County Rescue Squad Comes Close to Call and Response Records in 2018

2018 marks the second highest call and volunteer hours of response time put in by the squad since its creation.

DULUTH, Minn.- In 2018 the St. Louis County Rescue Squad came close to a record breaking number of calls from major incidents like the Husky Refinery explosion to a spike in ATV–snowmobile crashes.

405 is the number of calls rounding off the third year in a row the rescue squad received over 400 emergency response calls- it’s what they’re calling the new expected average in the years to come.

405 is the second highest call number, the first being the record breaking 437 in 2016.

The rescue squad covers areas all the way up to the Canadian border, a space nearly the size of New Jersey for anything from water search and rescue to storm response and car accidents.

Squad members say calls vary every year and there’s no way to tell how many accidents will occur, but they believe the uptick in calls in recent years has to do with the better protocols emergency dispatch has in determining whether or not the rescue squad is needed.

“10 years ago, it took somebody interpreting whether they need the rescue squad or not. Now the protocols are getting better and tighter, and we’re getting the call automatically,” squad member Rick Slatten said.

The year also led the second highest number of volunteer hours at 24,500 put in by the 67 members of the squad.

Members say the number of people looking to volunteer on the rescue squad is higher than ever. The team is very selective on who joins, making sure each member has a diverse background of skills to apply to every situation.

“We’re not in the life–saving business. We’re in the helping people out of a jam business, and that’s what we seek to do and our people– we do it well and we have a lot of fun at it, too,” Slatten said.

The St. Louis County Rescue squad is entirely run off community donations and grants. They say they’ll only be able grow in their response abilities if the community continues to be involved with their efforts moving forward.