What started as a fairly routine Squamish Search and Rescue operation to retrieve an injured mountain biker took a dramatic turn for the worse Sunday (July 25) when a forest fire flared up around rescuers as they prepared for a long-line retrieval.
"I don't know how to explain it," said SAR manager John Howe. "It was just really strange to go from a routine call to an emergency all its own."
The drama began at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday when a SAR crew responded to a medical rescue near the Telus cell phone repeater towers south of Chance Creek. The rider, a 33-year-old woman, had fallen and suffered serious chest and back injuries.
Rescuers planned a routine helicopter evacuation transportation system (HETS) extraction -also known as a long-line rescue - and flew to an area nearby to set up. Within 20 minutes, they were surrounded by wildfire.
Howe, a SAR member of 20 years, said the experience ranks in his top 10 for rarity and challenge.
"I've never seen this happen," said Howe. "It was an exceptionally rare situation, and as it relates to the rescue, I've never heard of anything like it."
At first, the situation seemed rather mild. Shortly after they landed at the staging area, they noticed a metre-long stick on fire in a gravel area, which they quickly put out by dousing it with sand.
But thoughts of flames spreading weren't far from their minds.
"We realized that small fire must have been going when we arrived and the chances of us spreading it with helicopter wash was very real," said Howe.
"Sure enough, about 15 minutes later we heard the crackling sound and then noticed about a three-by-three-metre area on fire."
They quickly put out that fire, but by then several others had sprung up and they were forced to leave the area.
"We realized there were several other fires burning around the area we were staging from," he said. "We had to immediately lift off the helicopter and vacate the area.
"I'm a forester by profession and understand how quickly these things can blow out of control and get very large, very quickly. Because of the direction of the wind there was a real possibility that fire could spread and cut off access to where we were located."
The Coastal Fire Centre arrived with water bombers and fought the fires while Squamish SAR and Whistler SAR organized the extraction.
Howe called it a joint effort between both rescue teams, and said the Coastal Fire Centre was fighting the fire from the air for the next hour and a half and then on the ground for the rest of the day.
He said it was an interesting turn of events and could have ended up much worse.
"We do get calls almost every day but most of them are quite routine not like this one."
The injured mountain biker was never in danger from the wildfire. She was airlifted to Squamish hospital. The extent of her injuries is unknown.
