The Gunflint Trail is a beautiful remote area—but it generally has a telephone link to civilization. That was not the case on November 18, 2011 when phone lines and emergency 911 access were out of service. Contacted on Tuesday, November 22, a CenturyLink representative said the company had no record of an outage in the Grand Marais area, but residents— and Cook County Law Enforcement—were affected by a phone outage from 7:52 a.m. until 1:59 p.m. on Nov. 18.
Unfortunately this is not the first time the Gunflint Trail has been without telephone service for an extended period. Fortunately, Cook County Law Enforcement and the Gunflint Trail Fire Department have a plan in place for just such a situation.
If there is an extended phone outage, volunteers from the fire department head to Gunflint Fire Hall No. 1, at Poplar Lake, to be available for anyone to request help for medical or fire emergencies. Radios and satellite phones are used to communicate outside the 388 phone area.
Gunflint Fire Chief Mike Prom said members of the volunteer fire department are also ready to assist with communications. Members of the fire department work and live at Voyageur Canoe Outfitters, Gunflint Pines and Golden Eagle Lodge.
In an emergency residents can also go to a neighbor who is a member of the fire department.
The Gunflint Fire District includes over 700 private and commercial property parcels situated near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and within the Superior National Forest. Since 1992, the fire department has been responding to structure and wildland fires, medical emergencies, and situations calling forsearch and rescue.
Leave a Reply