Powell River Fire Rescue was involved in a high-angle rescue on May 10, bringing five youth off the cliffs in the Mowat Bay area.
Deputy chief Rocky Swanson said an initial call came in around 9:30 pm that a young woman was possibly stuck on the cliffs opposite the beach at Mowat Bay.
“It turns out it wasn’t one, it was five kids, and we had to rescue all of them, using a basket stretcher and ropes,” said Swanson. “It was like an 80-foot vertical drop. They were stuck up there and these kids were not cooperating.”
Swanson said he believes the oldest of the rescued youth was 14. He said some of them were impaired.
Making the rescue difficult was the fact that the scene was pitch black, according to Swanson.
Fire rescue crews mobilized with the assistance of Powell River RCMP, who provided an inflatable boat to help transport the crews across the bay. Once the firefighters landed, they had to hike up in total darkness to the top of the mountain to tie off so they could pick the children off using the basket stretcher, to lower them into the awaiting RCMP vessel. Swanson said there were no significant injuries.
Parents started showing up around 2 am and were surprisingly calm during the rescues, according to Swanson.
In addition to the response from RCMP, BC Ambulance, including four paramedics, and Powell River Search and Rescue members were also on scene.
Swanson said he called dispatch and told them the fire department had the last youth rescued around 3 am and it took another half hour to get the rescuers back to the beach.
The fire department sent its on-duty crew members to the lake to perform the rescue and there was a host of auxiliary members on standby to cover any calls in town.
“It turned out really well; it really couldn’t have gone any better.” said Swanson. “The RCMP were fantastic as well. There were five or six of them there, so it was a really good team effort.”
At the end of the night, Swanson said the rescuers were conversing, saying that’s one for the books, plucking five people off a cliff.
“You don’t hear about this kind of rescue very often,” said Swanson. “It was a very technical rescue. There was complexity in being in such slippery, dangerous terrain and trying to put together a properly structured rope rescue is very difficult in the best of circumstances.
“It’s possible we could have walked two of them down, but realistically, it would have likely led to injuries.”
Swanson said it was a good team effort from everyone here in town. He said that’s why training is so important.
“We just finished doing a series of high-angle rescue exercises about a month before COVID-19 struck,” said Swanson. “The same guys who were directly involved in setting up those exercises were the same guys who did the rescue.”
