By Alexander Fern / Assist. News Director

A St. Cloud man was rescued from Rice Lake near Cold Spring on Monday afternoon.

At 4:00 p.m. the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office responded to a watercraft accident on Rice Lake in Eden Lake Township. 

The Stearns County Emergency Communications center received a call saying there was a boat capsized on Rice Lake and that there appeared to be a man floating near it. The caller who alerted authorities was his neighbor who then used his own pontoon to go to the capsized boat to assist the man who was piloting his capsized vessel.

The capsized boat owner, 66-year-old William Henrichs of St. Cloud, told deputies he was heading northeast near the point on Patricia Street. When he came around the point, the wind conditions increased causing large waves, and the boat motor stopped working. Water began to fill the back of the boat causing it to capsize.

Henrichs had some initial difficulty inflating his life preserver since it was not Coast Guard approved, but eventually he was able to get it to work and call for help. Henrichs was cold, but not injured.