A young man was rescued after being trapped in a 300-foot cave in St. Paul early Sunday morning.
The rescue happened around 6 a.m. along the bluffs of the Mississippi River near Water Street.
Hours earlier, the man had fallen about 20 feet into a hole, which turned into a 300-foot shallow cave he couldn’t get out of. He texted his friend saying he was trapped, but then his phone went dead.
St. Paul firefighters and their advanced tactical rescue team started searching the area, looking for the cave entrance.
They located the man around 5 a.m. in the cave he had fallen into, officials said. It had high levels of carbon monoxide and smoke inside.
St. Paul’s rescue team with the help of Minneapolis’ rescue team were lowered into the cave and pulled him out.
The man was able to walk around and suffered only minor injuries, but was still taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.
The man said he was alone, but firefighters continued to search for anyone who could be trapped.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
