Kaslo Search and Rescue (SAR) experienced an abnormally busy summer, which Manager Mark Jennings-Bates attributes to a variety of factors.
“It was definitely busier than usual. Some of that can be attributed to the fire situation. We get called in by the RCMP and the RDCK to assist with fire evacuations and fire alerts, so that kept us busier than usual, but there were a lot of other activities that kept us busy too.”
July was the busiest month. Jennings-Bates says his team received 26 calls for service within the first 18 days of July and nearly 30 calls total throughout the entire month, which is more than half the call volume they saw last summer over a three-month period.
Beyond the fires, Jennings-Bates says Kaslo SAR had a “whole gamut” of operations throughout the summer, including body removals and several technical rescues.
“We saw a few technical rescues in July, where people had accidents in the mountains and we needed to use our mountain rescue team essentially to help them. In some cases, it was a body recovery, like a missing person that we were called in to remove from a difficult situation. Unusually, our SAR team also dealt with motor vehicle incidents.”
A notable rescue from July was that of a hiker on the Kokanee Glacier who became stranded when the terrain around them caught fire, which Jennings-Bates said was a critical rescue.
Kaslo SAR has a roster of about 35 to 40 volunteers, including trainees and fully trained members. Jennings-Bates says the busy summer was challenging at times because of the drain on resources.
“I think one day we had eight calls in a single day, and one of those calls I know lasted more than 24 hours. Some of those people are still volunteering to go out on calls, and that’s where, as managers, we have to stand them down and tell them to get some rest. It pulled us in a lot of different directions and led to the volunteers being tired.”
Kaslo SAR serves a 6,500-square-kilometre area of mountains around Kaslo. Jennings-Bates says the region is very technical, meaning the team needs to be trained in technical disciplines such as angle rescue, mountain rescue, and swift water rescues.
“It’s a gigantic region and a very technical region, so there are a lot of technical capabilities we need to have for a very small town that serves a very large area.”
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