Man suffers severe neck injury in Duluth chainsaw accident

Emergency responders were called late Monday to the 400 block of West Orange Street in Duluth after a man was cut by a chainsaw and suffered a severe neck injury, with the wound possibly severing an artery. In a citywide emergency, that kind of neck trauma is treated as a medical race against time because major blood vessels run close to the airway and can turn a cut into a life-threatening hemorrhage.

City records available Tuesday did not show a matching public incident release on the Duluth Police Department press-release page or the City of Duluth Fire Department reports page. The basic details that were available pointed to the scene itself, the 400 block of West Orange Street, the chainsaw injury and the possibility of arterial damage. No victim name, age or condition had been released in the city materials reviewed.

Duluth police describe their department as the third-largest municipal police department in Minnesota, and the city has been steering more public information into its crime map dashboard. The dashboard was launched in 2024, is now mobile friendly, receives new cases weekly and is refreshed quarterly. That makes it one of the places where more information about the West Orange Street call could later appear in the city’s system.

Even without a fuller public report, the injury underscores how dangerous chainsaws can be when a blade slips near the head or neck. Cuts in that area can be especially severe because of the risk of major bleeding, nerve damage and airway compromise. For Duluth and surrounding St. Louis County neighborhoods, the incident is a stark reminder that chainsaw use is not a routine yard task when the body’s most vulnerable structures are in range.

The case also fits the kind of urgent response local crews are built for: fast arrival, quick assessment and rapid movement toward definitive care when a wound may involve an artery. No city materials available Tuesday identified the incident as part of a broader pattern of tool-related injuries, leaving it documented as a serious individual trauma on a city street rather than a wider public safety trend.