Emergency beacon false alarm in BWCAW

Cook County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue crews mobilized for what could have been a massive rescue operation just after noon on Friday, July 27. Fortunately it turned out to be a false alarm.

The call came in to the Cook County 9-1-1 dispatch reporting a person in distress near North Cone Lake, which is north of Brule Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). The call came from an emergency signal beacon device.

However, according to Emergency Management Director Valerie Marasco, the user of the beacon was able to transmit that it was a false alarm and Search and Rescue was cancelled.